VI 
ANIMAL COMMUNICATION 
HE notion that animals consciously train and 
educate their young has been held only tenta- 
tively by European writers on natural history. Dar- 
win does not seem to have been of this opinion at 
all. Wallace shared it at one time in regard to the 
birds, — their songs and nest-building, — but aban- 
doned it later, and fell back upon instinct or in- 
herited habit. Some of the German writers, such 
as Brehm, Biichner, and the Millers, seem to have 
held to the notion more decidedly. But Professor 
Groos had not yet opened their eyes to the signifi- 
cance of the play of animals. The writers mentioned 
undoubtedly read the instinctive play of animals as 
an attempt on the part of the parents to teach their 
young. 
That the examples of the parents in many ways 
stimulate the imitative instincts of the young is quite 
certain, but that the parents in any sense aim at 
instruction is an idea no longer held by writers on 
animal psychology. 
Of course it all depends upon what we mean by 
teaching. Do we mean the communication of know- 
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