HUMAN TRAITS IN THE ANIMALS 



gates, till it quite fades out in the more highly civ- 

 ilized communities! 



Animals experience grief over the loss of their 

 young, but not over the death of a member of 

 their flock or tribe. Death itself seems to have no 

 meaning to them. When a bird seems to mourn 

 for its lost mate, its act is probably the outcry of 

 the breeding instinct which has been thwarted. 



Do the birds and mammals sympathize with one 

 another ? When one bird utters a cry of distress, the 

 birds of other species within hearing will hasten 

 to the spot and join in the cry — at least in the 

 breeding season. I have no proof that they will do 

 it at other times. And I do not call this sympathy, 

 but simply the alarm of the parental instinct, which 

 at this season is very sensitive. The alarm-cry of 

 many birds will often put four-footed animals on 

 the lookout. The language of distress and alarm 

 is a universal language, which all creatures under- 

 stand more or less. But I doubt if sympathy as we 

 know it — the keen appreciation of the suffering 

 or the misfortune of another, which implies power 

 in a measure to put ourselves in that other's place 

 — even in its rudimentary form, exists among the 

 lower orders. Among the domestic fowls, a cry of 

 distress from one of them usually alarms the others : 

 a cry from a chicken brings the mother hen to the 

 rescue ; this is the maternal instinct, and the instinct 

 of self-preservation which all animals must have or 

 139 



