1883.] 
5 
Speech in Animals. 
to civilised man. Or it might be attempted in temperate 
South America with Chrysotis amazonica, which is said to be 
even more docile and intelligent than the African grey parrot. 
If a pair of clever parrots were matched, and the experiment 
were carried on for several generations with their offspring, 
always seledbing the most docile and intelligent birds, there 
can be little doubt but that most interesting results would be 
reached. The adaptability of the vocal organs to articulate 
speech, the power of the brain to regulate and co-ordinate 
the adtion of the muscles of those parts, would assuredly 
undergo a gradual development. In like manner the memory 
for words, and for their connection with the objedts which 
they symbolise, would be strengthened. What ultimate end 
might thus be reached it is impossible to predidt. Perhaps 
in these days of cram and of the equal rights of animals we 
may, in five centuries, have magpies in the “ fifth and sixth 
standards,” macaws preparing for the examination of the 
Science and Art Department, and cockatoos — “ sweet bird 
graduates” — taking their degrees at the University of 
London. 
(A cantankerous acquaintance who sometimes intrudes 
into our sandtum, looking over our shoulder, remarks that 
we have already reached all these results.) 
In sober sadness we trust that such experiments will be 
carefully undertaken and carried on for the needful length of 
time. Of time, indeed, there must be no stint, for parrots 
arrive but very slowly at maturity. 
So much, then, for birds. But how about talking Mam- 
malia ? We can scarcely deny that the anthropoid apes, 
the dog, the cat, the elephant are more intelligent than the 
parrots, ravens, magpies, starlings, &c. It is generally ad- 
mitted that they understand our spoken language to a very 
considerable extent, even in matters where tone, gesture, 
or expression of features throw no light at all upon our 
meaning. We know instances where words of reproach, 
though intentionally uttered in a mild tone, have been at 
once comprehended both by dogs and cats. 
A very intelligent dog described by M. A. Roujon* will, 
when ordered by his master, fetch, without ever being mis- 
taken, his pipe, tobacco, a knife, a fork, &c. When he hears 
merely the word “ sport ” ( chasse ) he rushes to his master’s 
gun. This dog belongs to a M. Antoine Barthomeuf, who 
keeps a cafe in the Place de l’Eglise, at Chamalieres, near 
Clermont-Ferrand. But why, then, as mammalians so 
Revue Internationale des Sciences Biologiques, 1882, No. 10, p. 348= 
