LEAF AND TENDRIL 



What a clear case is that of the hen when she brings 

 o£E her first brood! She speaks a language which 

 she never spoke before, and her chickens hear a 

 language which they never heard before, and under- 

 stand it instantly. When the mother hen calls them, 

 they come; when she utters her alarm-note, they 

 hide, or run to her for protection. 



The various calls and cries of the animals have 

 just about the same significance as do their gestures 

 of bristling, arching, pawing, and so on. They are 

 understood by their fellows, and they are express- 

 ive of emotions and not of ideas. The loud cack- 

 ling of a rooster which I hear as I write expresses 

 in a vague way some excitement, pleasurable or 

 otherwise. Or he may be signaling to the cackling 

 hen to guide her to the flock, an instinct inherited 

 from his jungle-fowl ancestors. 



The parrot, of course, does not know the mean- 

 ing of the words it repeats so glibly; it only asso- 

 ciates certain sounds with certain acts or occasions, 

 and says " Good-by," or " Come in," at the right 

 time because it has been taught to connect these 

 sounds with certain sense impressions through the 

 eye and ear. When a child is in pain, it cries; 

 when it is pleased, it laughs : always are its vari- 

 ous sounds expressive of some immediate concrete 

 want or experience. This is the character of all 

 animal language; it does not express ideas, but 

 feelings — emotions then and there experienced — 

 164 



