VOCAL ORGANS OF APES 119 



I quite agree with you that thought must come before speech, 

 at least before anything hke conversation. Knowing what slight 

 modifications in structure are often associated with enormous 

 differences in function and vice versa, it would be very rash to 

 say that an ape's vocal organs (so closely resembling man's as 

 they are) might not under the proper stimulus be developed or 

 cultivated into producing articulate sounds. Some of the higher 

 apes, especially the gibbons, have a loud and very human-like 

 voice, and the remarkable chimpanzee now at the Zoological 

 Gardens, called " Sally,'' does something that sounds very like 

 talking. 



But I have no doubt but that the question you put to me 

 would be answered differently by different persons whose know- 

 ledge was based upon precisely the same data, according to the 

 bias of the mind to see resemblances or differences. 



This is at the bottom of the whole of the " Man and Ape " 

 controversy, and we shall never get to the end of it. 



Professor Flower to the Duke of Argyll 



British Museum (Natural History), 



Cromwell Road, London, S.W., 



October d, 1887. 



The description which you have sent of the strange bird is so 

 full and graphic that there can be no doubt about it. It is the 

 roller, Coracias garrula. It is a bird of Eastern Europe, but many 

 instances are recorded of its occurrence in Scotland, and it is 

 included in all the lists of British birds. 



Your specimen may be in immature plumage ; the " chestnut- 

 red " back is quite right. The pictures of the bird in books are 

 generally over-coloured. 



The Duke of Argyll to Professor Flower 



Inveraray, Argyllshire, 

 September 2d, 1888. 



I have just come home from a drive in which I have made a 

 grand discovery — organic remains in one of the quartzite beds of 

 this neighbourhood. 



