The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-20
ANIMALS TALK.
Instances of Intelligent Communica-
ton Cited By Londoner.

SAS@A OASS~A ~ 90 ~<~@A>~S->--
If animals talk, as we are convinced
that they do, to the extent of convey
ing wishes or facts by sounds, their
speech ought to conform to the d1v1-
sions of human speech. There must,
in fact, be an animal grammar IN
the terms of which they express them
selves 1t is no bad test of the asser-
ton that animal speech exists to apply
the old formal divisions of the gram
marians to the instances in which they
appear to voice" their thoughts, and
ascertain by trial whether the forms
into which the human speech has been
divided fit the latter. The tlme-ho-i-
ored divisions of speech are % state
ment of fact; CD request, including
commands; CD question. 1t is not 10
be supposed that the very limited
range and simple character of animal
wants and ideas would necessarily
bring into play the whole of this cat
egory of articulate speech. But, as a
fact, they do need to use all three
forms of expression, but omit the last
Unlike children, animals do not ask
questions They only look" them, ana,
though they constantly and anxlously
inquire what is TO be done, how II IS
TO be DONE and the exact wishes Oh
their masters, anu OSNdSlOhoAS
of other animals, the inquiry is made
by the eye and attitude. A terrier, for
instance, can almost transform ms
whole body into an animated note OF
Interrogation.
OF the two remaining forms of speech
statement and request-the ANIMALS
make very large use, but employ tne
latter in far greater degree than the
former They use sounds for request,
OpIx in, 1.fia1IlQr in winch
they desire something to be done for
them, but also in a great number or
cases in which the request is a form
of warning-.Come!" BE careful!
Look out,' go ahead" Help The
speech which indicates danger IS SUI
ficiently Differentiated. Birds, Tor IN
stance. have separate notes of warning
to indicate whether the danger is in
the form of a hawk or cat, or OF man.
If a hawk, cat or owl is on the move,
the bird, especially blackbirds, always
utter a Gathering note, constantly re,
peated, and chickens have special
sound to indicate the presence Oh
hawk But when disturbed by man the
bIackbirds have quite a different sound
of alarm and the chickens also AMI
mails on the march are Usually SILENT
but the hamadryad balloons use sew
eral words of command, and the cries
of cranes and geese when flying in or
dered f1ocks are very possibly signs OF
orders.
Specific requests are commonly mace
nv A. sound. which the animal INTENDS
to he taken as expressing a want, .
while it indicates what it wants by |
showing the object. The greatest oil |
ficultv is when the object wanted, or |
required to be dealt with, is not pres
emf. The animal has then to induct |
you to follow and see the thlng, anu
this often leads to great ingenuity
both in the use of voice and action |
This form of request is practlced Hiole
or less successfully by a CONSIDER !
able number of the animals kept as
nets or servants of man. Various |
monkeys, geese, a goat, an eve with d i
lamb, elephants, cats very commonly
and dogs innumerable are credited with |
"accosting persons" and bringing 10 |
their notice by vocal means the opJects
they desire or the actions they WISH
done. A most ingeniously constructed |
request of this kind was made few
wears ago by a retriever dog late one
night in London. The streets were
empty. and the dog came up and, al
fer Wagging his tail, began to bark
using not the rowdy bark Wnlch uoSS
employ when jumping at a horse hea9
or when excited, but the persuasive ana
confidential kind of bark which Is used
requests anu IGpIOclSlACS-
very insistent, especially when small
dark passage was reached, up which ne
ran still barking. AS this did not an
sver the dog ran back and took the
WRITER'S hand in which he was carrying
his glove, in his mouth. and gave gen.
tie pull in the direction OF the passage.
AS this did not meet with the atten-
ton desired the dog pulled the glove OUT
of the hand and carried 1t on up the
massage. keeping a few yards in front
and waving his tail in a friendly way;
this naturally led to pursuit, when the
dog still keeping ahead, dropped the
glove in front of a gate leading into
butchers yard, and began to Dark
again. AS he obviously wanted the gate
TO be opened this was done, ana ne
trotted in without further remark.
everyone who has kept dogs knows
the tone of the bark of request-a low
swouf." very unlike the staccato bark
IF anger or VeXation, or remonStrance.
A bulldog at the Earl's Court dog show
made his particular part of the bench
almost uncomfortable by this form OF
bark. kept up Gas we heard) for nearly
three hours without a stop. because ne
was jealous of the attention PAID 10
the dog next to him. This had won the
first nrize. and. consequently, received
all the admiration; so the other dog
oarked short, sharp, incesSant yelpS az
him all day long only stopping when
some one patted him. We believe that
eopards are absolutely silent creatures,
but many of the felidae have partlcu-
ar sound of request. In the cat a very
ow short NEW is commonly used when
he object is near. and will almost GER
-ainly be granted, such as the opening
IF a door, or the giving of water or
milk Unusual food which it fancieS it
will not get is asked for in another no.e,
md anv reouest not attended to is re-
)eated in the different key. The tiger
lses the low NEW in some form of con-
yersation with the tigress, and the
puma when domesticated has a con-
siderable range of notes to ask for
God. water and society, or to return
hanks. the latter being as in the case
IF the cat and tiger kind of purr.
statement" in animal speech is
mainly confined TO indications that the
.reature has made a discovery. good or
Dad. For the former the cock has, per
laps, the most distinct set of sounds;
hey are quite unlike any other note he
1ses. and are confined to the assertion
hat he has found something good to
.at. Cock pigeons do the same, and
We imagine that geese have an equiva-I
ent sound. Dogs have two forms of
sound to state a discovery, elephants
,nly one. The dog barks lound and
sharply over something new, or merely
surprising. We have seen a dog bark
ne in this way when a couple of geo
graphical globes were placed in win
he had never seen and
wished to call attention to. But a pain
ul discovery, such as that of a dead
,ody or a dangerously wounded man,
s sometimes communicated by the dog
lowIing-which marks a different form
# speech. A practical acquaintance
With shore shooting and the men who
AVE learned TO initiate the notes of
hore birds discloses some curious facts