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 : — 



"I 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 

 84 , 



