The Word—Not the Tone Alone. 
Hot Springs, Ark., Dec. 26.— Editor Forest and 
E Stream: In spite of the flood of natural history 
flowing from the press—the work of earnest, 
keen observers, not the gush of the “natural 
history romancers”—I am sorry to say there 
are still men, educated men and evidently 
lovers of nature, who are unable to rid them¬ 
selves of errors resulting from early false 
teaching or narrow prejudice. They say, 
with an air of finality, that “the horse and 
the dog are very intelligent, and seem to 
know what is wanted of them, sometimes, 
but they do not recognize words, as such, and 
cannot learn their meaning—they are affected 
only by the tone!” 
There is in Chicago an eminent and inter 1 - 
esting minister, quaint in speech and original 
in manner of delivery, whose sermons are 
printed in at least one great newspaper, and 
whose thoughts I usually like for their man- 
I liness and power, who has at least almost 
; “fallen from grace” in my estimation, because 
: of an unkind, unsound, altogether unjustifiable 
! remark in one of his reported sermons. Now 
■ I-would quote same, but I have lost two or 
thre precious hours in an unavailing search 
for that particular sermon, so I am compelled 
to trust entirely to memory. But, while not 
pretending to reproduce his words, I will cor¬ 
rectly give their sense: 
I “Man, having an immortal soul, is the only 
really intelligent animal, the only one that 
thinks. You brag about the smartness _ of 
your dog! You imagine smartness into him! 
He does a few things that look smart (for 
; which his trainer should have all the credit), 
but he also does some very foolish things.” 
The last sentence, plainly shows his unfair¬ 
ness and unsoundness—as if a man never did 
1 any foolish thing! 
I am a preacher myself; yet I wonder that 
anyone, especially a preacher, should deem 
it necessary to imply the superiority of man 
by emphasizing the inferiority of the brute. 
Nobody but an irresponsible sentimentalist 
could claim an equal intelligence for brutes; 
: yet mankind would be happier and wiser if 
j humbler, and ever alert and ready to “prove 
■ all things, hold fast that which is good,” in 
i earthly as well as spiritual matters. 
In former contributions to Forest and Stream 
I believe I gave plenty of the most positive 
1 evidence “from real life” that animals can 
and do think, and that they can and do learn 
| words—simple and common ones, ’tis true, 
but words, nevertheless; and that they are 
1 no more greatly influenced by the mere tone 
than are sensitive human beings. Yet I wish 
to ask the attention of all who desire to 
; strengthen their habit of examining carefully 
before claiming positive knowledge, to a little 
I further evidence. 
It is true that animals can be taught to 
I obey a tone alone, that is, a mere sound hav¬ 
ing no place among the lists of words. So 
may a human being. Therefore, that proves 
nothing. It is likewise true that you may 
1: say a thing in a tone that contradicts the 
[1 word—and the animal may—or may not—re¬ 
spond to the tone only. But the same effort 
will produce the same effect upon any sensi¬ 
tive child, woman or man! Again, horses and 
I dogs are the most sensitive of all brutes, the 
most easily offended, encouraged, dis- 
'couraged. Therefore, need one be surprised 
U if he finds it takes a long lesson to teach a 
| horse or dog to. obey the word regardless of 
the tone and manner? That either can be so 
taught, however, thousands of people know 
from their own experience. 
I can say to my little Gipsy, “Come here 
and let me whip you,” in the quietest, softest, 
most smiling style—and she comes cringing, 
trembling and ashamed, showing unmistak¬ 
ably that she considers the word “whip” 
humiliating and hateful, yet hopes I do not 
intend to inflict any punishment. Then I can 
frown my worst and shout out as Savagely as 
I please, “No, you’re a good dog!” and she 
frisks about joyfully, although she dislikes 
harsh tones even in sport. 
If a horse learns nothing but the tone of 
command, just ask any old driver why his 
faithful cart horse invariably does the proper 
thing at any of the following commands (all 
spoken in the same low, even voice, and, 
mayhap, the driver quite out of his sight): 
“Whoa—back a little—pull up—a little more 
—hold—easy, now—pull up—gee—whoa, haw, 
and back a little. Stand still, now.” 
These commands may look a trifle arbitrary 
and confused in print, but they are very or¬ 
dinary sounds in Hot Springs (excepting that 
they are not always mild), and frequently ut¬ 
tered in the order here given. I have, noticed 
that the more mildly they are given, the 
more likely they are to be promptly obeyed. 
L. R. Morphew. 
Jewels from Nature’s Lapidary. 
At Lake Goguac, Michigan, one summer 
morning, there was presented to my sight the 
most beautiful nature picture that I ever saw. 
During the night all of the spiders had been 
seized with the same impulse, to spin webs. 
For miles, as far as the eye could see, there 
were thousands of silken webs, some of the 
m > 
I. -V 
7 
dream. Such scintillation of colors and glitter 
of light! It was Nature’s Coronation! Mag¬ 
nificent! No artist could paint a scene so 
lovely, so brilliant, so grand. No human 
lapidary could cut diamonds or polish precious 
stones that could reflect more luster and 
beauty. Just the memory of that one morn¬ 
ing recreates its inspiration,, and I feel the 
benediction of nature. 
Charles Emmett Barnes. 
LUNCH TIME. 
orb, triangle and funnel shape, and others 
festooiied from top to top of the tallest 
grasses, the weeds and bushes looking like 
fairy telephone lines. A dew had fallen in 
the night and had congealed in tiny drops 
upon the gossamer. It was a bright, clear 
morning, and when the sun rose and its rays 
fell upon the acres of dew-besprinkled webs, 
it presented a sight beyond description. It 
was fairy land. The artistic forces of na¬ 
ture had been working in her laboratory and 
produced millions of precious gems that shed 
a silvery sheen over the landscape, dazzling 
the eye and electrifying the brain. Every 
drop of dew was a diamond. The rays of the 
rising sun reflected from the jewels of Aurora, 
producing a splender that rivaled an oriental 
Weight of Grouse. 
Natick, Mass., Dec. 2. — Editor Forest and 
Streayn: Am sending herewith the weights of 
ruffed grouse killed this season in the southern 
part of Middlesex county. It has seemed to me 
that the birds have not been as large for the last 
two or three years as formerly, and would be glad 
of a comparison with some other section. Would 
inbreeding, resulting from a scarcity of birds, 
have the effect of reducing the size of the young 
birds ? 
Grouse have been at least as' plentiful as last 
season. Woodcock rather scarce and no quail. 
Fourteen birds killed in October averaged just 
under 19 ounces; thirteen killed in November 
averaged a little less than 21 ounces; twenty- 
seven birds averaged 19ounces; largest bird, 
24 ounces; smallest, 17 ounces. There were six 
or seven old birds in the lot. Twenty of these 
birds were killed after Oct. 21. R. L. E. 
[Inbreeding, if carried far enough, might have 
the effect suggested, but we should greatly doubt 
the existence of any such inbreeding as our cor¬ 
respondent suggests in a state of nature. Nature 
takes pretty good care of this matter. The ruffed 
grouse looks to be a much larger bird than it 
really is. We believe that the average weight is 
not more than 1% pounds, although there is 
record of these birds weighing 2.y 2 pounds. Back 
volumes of Forest and Stream have contained 
much on the weight of grouse.— Editor.] 
Winter Signs. 
According to many of the time honored 
signs, the present winter is to be a hard one. 
Farmers declare the husks of the corn are 
unusually heavy and thick. The muskrat houses 
are more than twice as high as usual. On 
a certain pond where ordinarily there are but 
two or three rat houses not more than a foot 
and a half high, we recently counted eight, 
all of them between three and four feet high. 
Some of them looked almost as large as a 
small beaver lodge. 
Severe weather winter birds have made their 
appearance in unusual numbers. Aside from 
the tree sparrows, which usually come on 
soon after the blue snow birds, flocks of pine 
siskins are to be seen in the parks of New 
York city, and recently in Connecticut a large 
flock of redpolls was observed. This indi¬ 
cates—what of course we have already had 
—bitter cold weather in the north. 
Dwellers in New England may be on the 
lookout for pine grosbeaks—beautiful birds 
which occur with some regularity in northern 
New England, but seldom get as far south 
as New York—as well as for crossbills, the 
red and white-winged, which may perhaps 
also be seen. Persons who are fortunate 
enough to live in or near the country, and 
who love to be abroad, tramping the white 
fields or pushing their way through frozen 
swamps, should not neglect field glass and 
note book at this season of the year, for they 
may have an opportunity to observe birds that 
are seldom seen except by dwellers in the far 
north. 
