The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-04-08
DO ANIMALS D'ALk?

that they do. to the extent of convey
ing wishes or facts hy sounds. their
speech ought to conform to the divis-
IONS o! 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 asscr-
ti"n that animal speech exists to ap-
ply the old formal divisions of the
grammarians 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 time hon
ored divisions of speech arc CD state
ment of fact: (2) request, including
commands; (3) question. 1t is not to
be supposed that the very limited
range and simple character of animal
wants and ides would necessarily
bring into play the whole of this cate
cory of this articulate speech But,
as a fact, they do not need to use all
three forms of expression, but omit the
last. Unlike children, animals do not
ask questions. They only 'look"
them, and though they constantly and
anxiously inquire what is to be done,
how it is to be done and the exact
wishes of their masters, and occasion
ally even of other animals, the inquiry
is made by the eye and attitude. A
terrier, for instance, can almost trans
form his whole body into an animated
note OF interrogation.
Ofthe two remaining forms of speech
statement and requcst-the animals
make very large use, but employ the
latter in 4 far greater degree than the
former. They use sounds for request,
not only for particular cases in which
they desire something to be done for
them, but also in great number of
cases in which the request is form of
warning-"Comc!!" "Be careful!"
Look olt!'' '.Go ahead!' .'Help!"
The speech which indicates danger is
sufficiently differentiated. Birds, for
instance, have separate notes of warn
ing to Indicate wcthcr the danger is in
the form of Il hawk or cat or Il man.
! If n hawk, cat, or owl is on the move
the birds, especially blachbirds always
utter gathering note. const1atly re-
paitrd, a:id chickens have 4 special
sound to indicate the presence of Il
| hawk. But when disturbed by man
the blackbirls have quite Il different
| sound of,alarm and the chickens also.
| Animals on the march are usually ST.
lent; but the hamadrvad baboons use
several words of commando and the
cries of cranes a:.d geese when flying
in ordered locks are very possibly
signals or orders
Specific requests are commonly
made by sound, which the animal in
tends to ba taken 10y as expressive ola
want, while it indicates what it wants
by showing the object. The greatest
difficulty is when the object wanted, or
required to b, deaf with, is not pres
cnt. The animal has then to induce
YOU to follow and see the thing. aud
this often leads to great ingenuity
both in the use of voice and action.
This form of request is practised more
or less successfully by 4 considerable
number o. ihe animals kept as pets or
servants of man. Various monkeys,
geese, a goat, eve with a lamb, elc-
plants, cats very commonly, and dogs
innumcrable arc credited with sac
costing persons. and bringing to their
notice hy vocal means the objects they
desire or the actions they wish done.
y most inyeniolsly constructed re-
quest OF this kind was made 4 few
years ago by Il retriever dog late one
night in London. The streets were
empty; and the dog came up and, af-
ter wagginy his tail, began to bark
using not the rowdy bark which dogs
employ when jumping at a herse's
head or when excited, but the persua-
sive and confidential kind of bark
which is used in requests or reproleh-
cs. lie was very imsistent, especially
when small, dark passage was reach
eel. up which he ran. still barking. As
this did not answer, the dog ran back,
and took the writer's hand in which
he WAS carrying h> glove, in his
mouth, and gave gentle pull in the
direction of the passage. As this did
not meet with the attention desired,
the dog pulled the glove out of the
hand and carried it of up the passage,
keeping Il few yards in front and wav-
ing its tail in a friendly way; this nat
urAlly led to pursuit, when the dog,
still ker. iag ahead, dropped the glove
in ront Of 4 gate leading into a butch
er's yard, and began to bark again.
AS it obviously wanted the gate to be
opened, this was done, and it trottel
in without further remark
Everyone who has kept dogs knows
the tone of the bark of request, low
''woaf," very unlike the staccato bark
of anger, or veXation, or remonstrance.
\ bulldog ut the Eari's Court Dog
Show, made his particular part of the
bench almost uncomfortable by this
form of bark, kept up, (as we heard)
for nearly three hours without Il stop,