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The Motives of Animals. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The article, “Of Writing About Animals,” in 
Forest and Stream, of Dec. 28, is one likely to 
arouse some discussion—if would-be answerers 
are allowed to have their say.* 
Shaganoss is so entirely correct in most of 
what he says that in the few instances where he 
errs he is all the more likely to do mischief— 
in discouraging lovers of animals from studying 
the very exhibitions of their mentality or feel¬ 
ings which make them most interesting. 
I would not say that he really errs in any par¬ 
ticular, but hasty or passionate readers on the 
one hand, and prejudiced, cynical book naturalists 
on the other, will misunderstand him when he 
says, in his fourth paragraph, “ * * * was led by 
1 some motive or purpose of which we, human 
beings, have no knowledge whatever”; and in 
1 the fifth, “They see an animal do something 
which, if a man did it, he would do for a certain 
reason; therefore, the same reason must have 
been the animal’s reason. Thus what appears 
to be an abnormal act is made the basis of a 
false sketch of animal life.” 
In his seventh paragraph I fear he does the 
average reader a great injustice. Readers of 
Forest and Stream at any rate will judge the 
unusual stories or statements concerning animals 
according to their own experiences, not being 
greatly influenced either by the too romantic or 
‘These columns are always open to discussions that 
are instructive and entertaining to readers.—Editor. 
the too conservative naturalists. In his eighth 
paragraph Shaganoss is at first somewhat non¬ 
committal with a “may have been true, or may 
not,” but becomes too positive when he adds: 
“Nobody knows what the dog’s reason was.” 
Now, I believe that I am intensely practical; 
that no living man has observed animal 
ways more earnestly, patiently, constantly, or 
with less prejudice, pro or con; that I have had 
unusual opportunities for studying some of them, 
particularly domestic animals; and that I am 
every way qualified to make a few statements 
as follows: 
First, nothing is truer than that an animal is 
not always governed by the same rules as man 
under like condition, for neither are all men so 
governed; but while Shaganoss may not be able 
to interpret a motive in a given case, he certainly 
cannot be sure that no one else can. He might 
as well assert that men are all competent to 
judge at first sight the disposition of a horse, or 
that Diamond Billy Hall, of Lancaster, Mo., 
knows no more about a horse than an ordinary 
livery stable man. 
Secondly, to say that an animal’s motives are 
harder to comprehend than man’s would seem 
to argue that they possess greater, not less, men¬ 
tality than man; for certainly the greater the in¬ 
telligence the more complex the motives might 
be. 
Thirdly, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, 
and can prove it to any onlookers, that there are 
dogs that become unmistakably offended if 
laughed at when humiliated; while on the other 
hand, they plainly show pleasure when their in¬ 
tentional antics or playfulness meet with laugh¬ 
ing applause. Name your critics, and allow me 
to choose the dogs and rendezvous, and I will 
gladly prove this. The dogs may any or all be 
strange to me, for aught I care; only let me pick 
them, for some dogs, like some men, care little 
or nothing for either ridicule or praise. Why, 
even a smart horse or cat differentiates between 
applause or ridicule, and the readers of Forest 
and Stream must feel amazed that any observer 
could think the matter uncertain. 
What wooden automaton animals Shaganoss 
must have studied all his life! Not once, but 
hundreds of times, have I seen evidences of 
nearly all the emotions and passions of man in 
animals, as have thousands of .other people, too. 
Of course animal “smartness” can be exaggerated, 
and perhaps often is seen through too sympa¬ 
thetic eyes; yet I would call no man a liar ; f 
he were to relate some incident more wonder¬ 
ful than I had ever known, and contradictory 
to all my experiences; for, as one writer well 
intimates, there is much that none of us know, 
and which, nevertheless, may be just as true as 
anything we do know. 
Which is the more unreasonable—the man who 
astonishes you by relating something unlike any¬ 
thing you have experienced, or the man who is 
sure the thing is untrue, although he was not 
there? If you had never seen a circus boneless 
wonder of a man, would you be justified in 
denying the existence of any such man? Yet 
the boneless performer is no more the opposite 
of the ordinary stiff-jointed citizen than one 
animal may be different from another of the 
same species. 
Lastly, animals frequently do queer things en¬ 
tirely without any motive at all, probably, and 
man does also. And different men have various 
motives for the same acts, even under apparently 
identical conditions. L. R. Morphew. 
Bison of Lithuania. 
Some weeks ago we printed a portrait of one 
of the European bison now on exhibition at the 
New York Zoological Society’s park in the 
Bronx. This week we give a picture of the 
same species in the Bielovitska forest in 
Lithuania, where the Czar of Russia protects the 
largest surviving group of these animals. In 
this great park, which is about 160 miles in cir¬ 
cumference, the primeval forest still stands and 
all the wild animals native to central European 
forests are found there, except bears and wolves, 
which were exterminated some years ago. Ex¬ 
cept for the roads w'hich pass through it, the 
forest is unchanged. It is visited by few people 
except the foresters and at very rare intervals 
by the Czar and his family. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
BISON IN THE BIELOVITSKA FOREST. 
Under the protection of the Czar. 
