The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals | Page 3

not
here address ourselves to the invertebrates, nor even to the sea-rovers,
we can not keep them out of the background of our thoughts. The living
world is so vast and so varied, so beautiful and so ugly, so delightful
and so terrible, so interesting and so commonplace, that each step we
make through it reveals things different and previously unknown.
The Frame of Mind. To the inquirer who enters the field of animal
thought with an open mind, and free from the trammels of egotism and
fear regarding man's place in nature, this study will prove an endless
succession of surprises and delights. In behalf of the utmost tale of
results, the inquirer should summon to his aid his rules of evidence, his
common sense, his love of fair play, and the inexorable logic of his
youthful geometry.
And now let us clear away a few weeds from the entrance to our field,
and reveal its cornerstones and boundary lines. To a correct
understanding of any subject a correct point of view is absolutely

essential.
In a commonplace and desultory way man has been mildly interested in
the intelligence of animals for at least 30,000 years. The Cro- Magnons
of that far time possessed real artistic talent, and on the smooth stone
walls and ceilings of the caves of France they drew many wonderful
pictures of mammoths, European bison, wild cattle, rhinoceroses and
other animals of their period. Ever since man took unto himself certain
tractable wild animals, and made perpetual thralls of the horse, the dog,
the cat, the cattle, sheep, goats and swine, he has noted their intelligent
ways. Ever since the first caveman began to hunt wild beasts and slay
them with clubs and stones, the two warring forces have been interested
in each other, but for about 25,000 years I think that the wild beasts
knew about as much of man's intelligence as men knew of theirs.
I leave to those who are interested in history the task of revealing the
date, or the period, when scholarly men first began to pay serious
attention to the animal mind.
In 1895 when Mr. George J. Romanes, of London, published his
excellent work on "Animal Intelligence," on one of its first pages he
blithely brushed aside as of little account all the observations, articles
and papers on his subject that had been published previous to that time.
Now mark how swiftly history can repeat itself, and also bring
retribution.
In 1910 there arose in the United States of America a group of
professional college-and-university animal psychologists who set up
the study of "animal behavior." They did this so seriously, and so
determinedly, that one of the first acts of two of them consisted in
joyously brushing aside as of no account whatever, and quite beneath
serious consideration, everything that had been seen, done and said
previous to the rise of their group, and the laboratory Problem Box. In
view of what this group has accomplished since 1910, with their
"problem boxes," their "mazes" and their millions of "trials by error,"
expressed in solid pages of figures, the world of animal lovers is
entitled to smile tolerantly upon the cheerful assumptions of ten years
ago.
But let it not at any time be assumed that we are destitute of problem
boxes; for the author has two of his own! One is called the Great
Outdoors, and the other is named the New York Zoological Park. The

first has been in use sixty years, the latter twenty-two years. Both are
today in good working order, but the former is not quite as good as
new.
A Preachment to the Student. In studying the wild-animal mind, the
boundary line between Reality and Dreamland is mighty easy to cross.
He who easily yields to seductive reasoning, and the call of the wild
imagination, soon will become a dreamer of dreams and a seer of
visions of things that never occurred. The temptation to place upon the
simple acts of animals the most complex and far- fetched
interpretations is a trap ever ready for the feet of the unwary. It is better
to see nothing than to see a lot of things that are not true.
In the study of animals, we have long insisted that _to the open eye and
the thinking brain, truth is stranger than fiction._ But Truth does not
always wear her heart upon her sleeve for zanies to peck at.
Unfortunately there are millions of men who go through the world
looking at animals, but not seeing them.
Beware of setting up for wild animals impossible mental and moral
standards. The student must not deceive himself by overestimating
mental values. If an estimate must be made, make it under the mark of
truth rather than above it. While avoiding