themselves. They are, as a rule, in no- 
wise trying to charm their mates, and 
they are not at all desirous of pleasing 
anyone but themselves. It would be 
as reasonable to claim that the carpen- 
ter on the roof is whistling to please 
his sweetheart or that the lumberman 
alone with his cattle in the forest trolls 
forth his jolly song for any amorous 
reason. There are times when these 
purposes are the cause of singing, but 
the fact is that the great majority of 
the singing and whistling done by 
men, birds, and beasts sounds far bet- 
ter to the ones that produce it than to 
any other. In fact, society itself would 
be in a far better state if the men and 
women who sing would only acknowl- 
edge that they are doing so mainly to 
please themselves, and they might 
then be persuaded in part to leave off 
trying to surprise their hearers at 
times by singing louder or higher or 
faster than nature intended they should 
do. Most people enjoy listening to 
song, but no one can appreciate the 
beauties of it so well as the artistic 
singer who has acquired his talents by 
assiduous and intelligent discipline. 
His enjoyment of his own efforts is as 
much higher than that of his auditors 
as is the pleasure of the man who sings 
out of tune above the felicity of his 
hearers. 
Elephants speak in three ways. 
Pleasure is evinced by blowing the 
proboscis in a sharp manner — like the 
sound of a trumpeter learning. Wants 
are murmured over in the mouth. 
Rage roars tremendously low in the 
throat. While these sounds are not 
made for the purpose of informing 
others of states of feeling, yet they 
do convey to man and beast an idea of 
what is going on. So the lower ani- 
mals accidentally, if you please, have a 
sort of language. It is instinctive and 
conveys no intelligence not immedi- 
ately connected with the present state 
of the speaker or his community. 
Marcgrave says he has frequently 
seen the meetings held by the Ouarine 
Monkeys and enjoyed their delibera- 
tions. "Every day they assemble in 
the woods to receive instructions. One 
takes the highest place on the tree 
and makes a signal with his hand for 
the rest to sit round. As soon as he 
sees them placed he begins his dis- 
course in a loud and precipitate voice; 
the rest preserve a profound silence. 
When he has done he makes a sign 
with his hand for the rest to reply. At 
that instant they raise their voices 
together, until by another signal silence 
is enjoined." 
Professor Garner has studied simian 
speech so carefully that he is able to 
converse with Monkeys to a limited 
extent. He says they have words for 
"food" and "drink," have a spoken sal- 
utation, and can distinguish numbers 
up to about three, and have some 
notion of music. "In brief, they ap- 
pear to have at least the raw material 
out of which are made the most ex- 
alted attributes of man." 
Aristotle noticed that voices vary 
with conditions when he gravely an- 
nounced that the Calf affords the only 
instance in nature where the voice of 
the young is deeper and graver than 
that of its parent. Wild animals fre- 
quently change their voices on domes- 
tication. Domestic Dogs and even tame 
Jackals have learned to bark, which is 
a noise not proper to any species of 
the genus, with the possible exception 
of the Cards latrans of North America. 
Columbus discovered that Dogs left 
by him on an island where therewas no 
game nor any other occasion for bark- 
ing lost their voices completely before 
he visited them on a subsequent voy- 
age. Some breeds of domestic Pigeons 
coo in a new and quite peculiar manner 
not manifested in their wild state. 
The same species of birds living in 
different localities sometimes have 
different vocal habits. An excellent 
observer says an Irish covey of Par- 
tridges spring without uttering a call, 
while, on the opposite coast, the Scotch 
covey accompany their springing with 
intense shrieks. Bechstein says that 
from many years of experience he is 
certain that in the Nightingale a ten- 
dency to sing in the middle of the 
night or in the day runs in families 
and is strictly inherited. 
As the Parrot acquires human lan- 
guage by association with unfeathered 
bipeds, so do many voices modify 
themselves as circumstances alter, and 
202 
