WAYS OF NATURE 
tion, as does the parrot, and then learns the meaning 
of words, as the parrot does not. 
I am convinced there is nothing in the notion that 
animals consciously teach their young. Is it prob- 
able that a mere animal reflects upon the future any 
more than it does upon the past? Is it solicitous 
about the future well-being of its offspring any more 
than it is curious about its ancestry? Persons who 
think they see the lower animals training their young 
consciously or unconsciously supply something to 
their observations; they read their own thoughts or 
preconceptions into what they see. Yet so trained a 
naturalist and experienced a hunter as President 
Roosevelt differs with me in this matter. In a letter 
which I am permitted to quote, he says: — 
“T have not the slightest doubt that there is a 
large amount of unconscious teaching by wood-folk 
of their offspring. In unfrequented places I have had 
the deer watch me with almost as much indifference 
as they do now in the Yellowstone Park. In fre- 
quented places, where they are hunted, young deer 
and young mountain sheep, on the other hand, — 
and of course young wolves, bobcats, and the like, — 
are exceedingly wary and shy when the sight or smell 
of man is concerned. Undoubtedly this is due to the 
fact that from their earliest moments of going about 
they learn to imitate the unflagging watchfulness of 
their parents, and by the exercise of some associative 
or imitative quality they grow to imitate and then to 
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