The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-24
THEY ALL HAVE THEIR SAY.
Parrot, Raven and Man Not the Only
Animals That Talk.
From the Open Coz


Tho range of the animal language is far
greater than is generally conceived Con-
contracted at first at the poles Of the cell, and
later at the extreme ends of the bodies Of
nrsa+nres of complex organization, Ian
opaga tended more and more to the use Of
sonnds. After the escape of life from the
11-a+er the use of voice became almost uni
versal from the rough croak of frog to
+ha song of a thrush. The range of ex-
weston widened grandly in the quad
r1.,,nads and the birds. Necessarily incom-
nrebensible by us, it is certain that every
note and every modification of note car
lies meaning between fowls and birds. The
stI,dant of nature cOmprehends that
9Se morning. songs of birds with which
thew greet the break of day in summer
Is wholly integral affair, differing from
their evening songs as well as from the
notes uttered during love making, and
dnrinq the work of nest building. There
are also distinct shower songs, welcoming
the refreShings of nature. There are songs
of victory, songs of love and equally the
notes of querulous dissatisfaction, as well
as cries of anger and pain. These notes
evidently are understood, not merely with
in the limits of a single species, but the
robin comprehends his neigh6ors. This is
certain because not seldom the tribes make
common cause of joy or of battle. BY COM
mon consent the robin has the earliest hour
of dawn for his roundelay-other birds
either keeping silent or following in an I'M
dertone. After his song is ended the cat
bird begins, and takes the hour mainly to
himself-wherever he is an undsturbed
dweller.
My horse l find, instantly comprehendsa
sound of caution, one of reproach, another
for speed, and one of appreciation The dog
is specially capable IN this direction; but
still greater is the power of a cat, power
seldom allowed by us to show itself / have
no doubt that cat really gets the drift of
what we say to her, and at times our full
meaning. I'm the way of language" says
Popular Science, monkeys manifest their
passions, fears, desires, by cries and ges-
lures emphasized by significant accents,
The alphabets of some of the Mllanesian
races are not much richer. Some monkeys
have a noisy and explosive laughter
analogous to ours" Abbott insists
that birds not only sing but talk,
and that their song bears the same rela-
ton to speech as our own. Grows have
twenty-seven distinct cries or utterances,
each readily distinguishable from the others.
These utterances, as in all birds, are only
expressed when the bird is occupied, show
ing that birds sing from pleasure and talk
from necessity" He adds concerning
fishes: 'I have been led to believe that
certain sounds made by fishes are really
vocal efforts, and that their utterance is for
the purpose of expressing an idea"
All animals can talk if you but deign to
learn their language-not as their tongues
to crook to yours. Tones are speech, not
not artificial words that bear your language
as barrow wheels your corn.
But We must not neglect the fact that de-
sire to communicate, before its vent in vo-
calization, not only developed in a remark
able range of geSture-language, but emotion
expressed itself in colors and changes of
color. We shall make mistake if we at
tribute the coloring of birds, insects and
animals too largely to the survival of those
that best initiated or most resembled sur
rounding objects. Colors are gamut, ex-
pressing pride, love, anger, fear and every
possible emotion. They arise in the first in
stance from desire and effort at expression,
and are direct and Immediate. As such
they are language. They become in large
degree hereditary, and their display auto
matte. Birds in love have a love color; in
anger they have the anger color. Mimicry.
incidental or Intentional, applies color to
purposes of safety; but there is little proba-
bility that any color ever arose from pur-
pose at concealment.
1t is more and more clear to the intelli-
gent observer that language is absolutely
universal wherever there is sensation. All
life more or less is intercommunicative
Animals in our company, if dealt with as
capable of developments, soon adapt their
sounds to our requirements. | have owne d
a horse that could call me with distinct
sounds of caution, and others of affection,
and still others indicating more astruse
Ideas to my accumtOmed ear. On one occa-
sion she distinctly informed me of trouble
in the stabies-calling to me when 100 rods
away, and expr essing.the utmost satisfaction
when | reached the yard. The COWS had
broken down door and let loose some calves.
Are we not equally certain that some
animals, if they had the third convolution
and the genial tubercle, would now develop
speech, and that right rapidly | never
feel SO sad as when standing beside my
noble, large-brained horse. By all possible
means he endeavors to communicate with
me. Marvelously well he succeeds too, but
his language is yet one of gestures and
simple sounds. Assent disapproval, JOY,
antlpathy, desire, and ambition, as well as
personal affection, are in the range of the
horses language. Imagine with what speed
this creature would progress if ever the
genial tubercle were possible. However,
mans position was not secured by means of
language alone, but by means of freed hands
and an erect posture. The limits to Ian
guage correlate to the limits in the power of
toolmasing. The horse needs no extended
speech without hands to increase his rela-
ton to things.
In 1874 Prof, E. D. Cope, our eminent BIZ
oiogist and paleontologist, said: when
we lind the common ancestor of all the
hoofed mammals we shall find it to be pent-
adactyle, plantigrade, bunodont; that is,
hve-toed, a walker on the fat foot and pos
sessed of tubercular molar teeth" In 1881
he announced that such a type was actually
IN our posSession-a type that abounded in
North America during the early eocene era
five or more millions Of years ago. To this
typical group. called condylarthra, he traced
the lemurs or half-apes, which stand as pa
rents of the true apes; and from whom
biology traces as most probable the branch
that developed MAYNARD while the diverging
apes were arrested in development short
or a free hand and a frontal brain.
Later deductions and reconstruction show
that to the condylarthra can be traced the
origin of the herbivorus and carnivorus
mammals of the miocene and recent eras,
including the horse, hog, antelope, elephant,
Thlnoceros, the lion, tiger, wolf and bear.
IN oJner words, in common ancestral
type OF the eocene converge all these hoofed
mammals; and from that, now discovered,
FOSSIL type, by diverging lines, they moved
out toward the forms now existing. These
zines OF divergence are many Of them quite
completely reconstructed from our discov-
cries IN fossils-as in the case of the horse,
OF which we have the one-toed, the two
toed, the three-toed and the four oed, with
the NTH rudimentary. This affinity of the