The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals | Page 4

the folly of idealism, we also
must shun the ways of the narrow mind, and the eyes that refuse to see
the truth. Wild animals are not superhuman demigods of wisdom; but
neither are they idiots, unable to reason from cause to effect along the
simple lines that vitally affect their existence.
Brain-owning wild animals are not mere machines of flesh and blood,
set agoing by the accident of birth, and running for life on the
narrow-gauge railway of Heredity. They are not "Machines in Fur and
Feathers," as one naturalist once tried to make the world believe them
to be. Some animals have more intelligence than some men; and some
have far better morals.
What Constitutes Evidence. The best evidence regarding the ways of
wild animals is one's own eye-witness testimony. Not all second- hand
observations are entirely accurate. Many persons do not know how to
observe; and at times some are deceived by their own eyes or ears. It is
a sad fact that both those organs are easily deceived. The student who is
in doubt regarding the composition of evidence will do well to spend a
few days in court listening to the trial of an important and hotly

contested case. In collecting real evidence, all is not gold that glitters.
Many a mind misinterprets the thing seen, sometimes innocently, and
again wantonly. The nature fakir is always on the alert to see wonderful
phenomena in wild life, about which to write; and by preference he
places the most strained and marvellous interpretation upon the animal
act. Beware of the man who always sees marvellous things in animals,
for he is a dangerous guide. There is one man who claims to have seen
in his few days in the woods more wonders than all the older American
naturalists and sportsmen have seen added together.
Now, Nature does not assemble all her wonderful phenomena and hold
them in leash to be turned loose precisely when the great Observer of
Wonders spends his day in the woods. Wise men always suspect the
man who sees too many marvelous things.
The Relative Value of Witnesses. It is due that a word should be said
regarding "expert testimony" in the case of the wild animal. Some dust
has been raised in this field by men posing as authorities on wild
animal psychology, whose observations of the world's wild animals
have been confined to the chipmunks, squirrels, weasels, foxes, rabbits,
and birds dwelling within a small circle surrounding some particular
woodland house. In another class other men have devoted heavy
scientific labors to laboratory observations on white rats, domestic
rabbits, cats, dogs, sparrows, turtles and newts as the handpicked
exponents of the intelligence of the animals of the world!
Alas! for the human sense of Proportion!
Fancy an ethnologist studying the Eskimo, the Dog-Rib Indian, the
Bushman, the Aino and the Papuan, and then proceeding to write
conclusively "On the Intelligence of the Human Race."
The proper place in which to study the minds, manners and morals of
wild animals is in the most thickly populated haunts of the most
intelligent species. The free and untrammeled animal, busily working
out its own destiny unhindered by man, is the beau-ideal animal to
observe and to study. Go to the plain, the wilderness, the desert and the
mountain, not merely to shoot everything on foot, but to SEE _animals
at home,_ and there use your eyes and your field-glass. See what
normal wild animals do as "behavior," and then try to find out why
they do it.
The next best place for study purposes is a spacious, sanitary and

well-stocked zoological park, wherein are assembled great collections
of the most interesting land vertebrates that can be procured, from all
over the earth. There the student can observe many new traits of wild
animal character, as they are brought to the surface by captivity. There
will some individuals reveal the worst traits of their species. Others will
reveal marvels in mentality, and teach lessons such as no man can learn
from them in the open. To study temperament, there is no place like a
zoo.
Even there, however, the wisest course,--as it seems to me,--is not to
introduce too many appliances as aids to mental activity, but rather to
see what the animal subject thinks and does _by its own initiative._ In
the testing of memory and the perceptive faculties, training for
performances is the best method to pursue.
The reader has a right to know that the author of this volume has
enjoyed unparalleled opportunities for the observation and study of
highly intelligent wild animals, both in their wild haunts and in a great
vivarium; and these combined opportunities have covered a long series
of years.
Before proceeding farther, it is desirable to define certain terms