186 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
strangers. Often a dog is confused when his master, usually 
seen in a black or gray suit, appears in straw hat and flannels. 
Nevertheless, if birds once come to know those who habit¬ 
ually protect them, and form a trustful habit, this will not be 
abandoned on account of a little rough treatment at times. A 
lady who had a little colony of blackbirds nesting in her garden 
found them troublesome when she was gathering her straw¬ 
berries, and would sometimes capture one of the marauders, 
carrying him, screaming, struggling and pecking at her fingers, 
to the end of the garden and release him, but he would imme¬ 
diately follow her back to the strawberry bed and set to work 
feasting on the fruit again. We arrive at the same conclusion 
in this connection as with the animals and their trainer—they 
possess an acuteness of smell which enables them to know of 
the emotions of men. They know of man’s fear, as well as 
when he is enraged and has the intention to kill. 
The friendly or hostile attitude of the lower animals toward 
man is, however, not wholly attributable to the kind treatment 
habitually shown them. Even at first sight an animal may 
show either confidence, indifference, or violent dislike to a 
human being. It is a matter of common knowledge that those 
who are not afraid of bees will not be stung; that those un¬ 
afraid of a vicious dog will not be bitten, and that those who 
have no fear of ferocious beasts are seldom attacked, and 
make excellent trainers. 
There is, of course, a degree of the psychological in such 
phenomena, but there is good reason to believe that they are 
also referable to definite changes within the human body, set 
up by the glands of internal secretion, under the influence of 
the mind. We now know that these glands play a very essen¬ 
tial part in the growth and functioning of the body. They are 
known as “ductless glands”—that is, glands with an internal 
secretion, and are also called endocrine glands. 
The most important of these are the following: the pineal 
gland, located in the brain; the pituitary body or gland, at the 
base of the brain; the thyroid gland and behind it the parathy¬ 
roid gland, at both sides of the larynx; the thymus gland, 
which rests on the trachea, commonly known as the windpipe, 
