The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-01
DAY SCHOOL FOR ANTS
NOVEL METHODS OF EDUCATION ny
THE LOWER ORDERS.
Birds Instruct Their Young and Moth
er Bruin Does Not Spare the Rod
Lions Practice Leapins.
New York Telegram.

Like man. snimals, especially those of the
higher orders, are born with a latent in
herited education the effects of which are
manifested in the course of individual de-
velopment. Our organs, for instance, which
have been slowly built up during the evolu-
ton of the various specific types. act Of
themselves, each in its own way. They
have their own memory. The digestive, cir
culatcry and respira tory organs the senses,
etc., discharge their functions spontaneously
and without waiting for lessons from any
master.
The young animal left to its own i'm
pulses usually comes very soon to take care
of itself in the great world to avoid its
enemies and find food and a comfortable
bed. Except in species that live in larger
or smaller societies, parents drive away
their young as soon as they arrive at a
stage in which they can take care of them
selves. This fact is easily observable in
birds, even when they are domesticated.
The solicitous care of turtle doves for their
young gives way TO pecking and wing strik-
ing as soon as the latter are developed
Eagles drive their grown up young from
the nest, and even from The neighborhood.
Some other species take care for the future
of their offspring, and, before sending them
away, teach them to fly or swim or hunt or
fish. bureau de la Male saw falcons, high
up in the air, drop dead mice and swallows
in order to teach their young to spring upon
their prey while in rapid flight, and to esti-
mate distances and when the little hawk
lets were somewhat larger they dropped liv-
ing birds instead of dead game. American
crested ducks teach their young TO find seeds
ana TO snap at flies and aquatic insects.
1t Is generally the female that exercises
this care for her offspring, While the maie
concerns himself little about The matter
Inc female Wlld duck leads her brood 10 the
water, and takes care to choose places of no
very great depth tor this first lesson, and
trains the little ones to hunt flies, mosquitoes
and beetles. The female of the elder duck
gently carries her ducklings one by one IN
her beak, escorts them to the deep water
and teaches them to dive for fish. When
they are tired she glides under Them takes
them on her back and carefully carries them
to the shore.
instinct and ancestral education that birds
swim or fly, and the mother has only to IN
vite them TO the act by her example; but
for more complete training, the lessons are
very useful, If not necessary. These les
sons given by the parent birds TO their
young are the more impressive because
birds have a vocal language, developed to a
certain extent and the example is enforced
by admonitions, announcements, reproaches
and appeals, calculated TO stimulate the nat
ural tendency to imitation. With some spe-
cies of birds this language, too, is taught;
the individuals collect every morning ana
evening in chattering groups, ana the young
enjoying the benefit of social conVersa-
ton. easily learn to sing and chatter
Singing birds sometimes, too, give one an
other lessons without thinking of it, Some
birds sing badly when they have grown up
alone without the fellowship of companions
of their species; others reaully learn the
songs of strange Species and even OF man.
bureau de la Male taught a starring 10
whistle the Marseillalse, ana the pro IN
turn taught it's fellow-starlings of the neigh
borhood These abnormal acquisitions, now
ever, have not the fixity of hereditary in
stincts and are easily forgotten unless con-
slant care is exercised TO preserve them.
being in this respect very much like what
is learned in the schools for the examlna-
Numerous facts similar to those we have
cited have been collected by travellers ana
observers concerning educa foa a naOIas
takes great pains in the training Oh her
cubs. She teaches them to walk, CLIMB ana
eat and inficts punishments IN the shape
Of cuffs and bites to insure success, ana lhe
cubs never resist, even If they are larger
and stronger than their mother female
elephant has been giving swimming lessons
to her calf and correcting it when 1t blum
dered Working animals instruct their
young by associating them in their laporS
A female beaver has been observed TO cut
down a willow gnaw the bark and trim
off the branches, while her young initiated
her and finally helped her carry llmD 10
When lions were still numerous and easily
observed in southern Africa they were some
times seen instructing one another in volun-
tary gymnastics and practicing their leaps,
making a bush play the part of the absent
game. Moffat tells the story OF lion which
had missed a zebra by miscalculatng the
distance repeating the jump several times
for his own instruction. Two Of his COM
rades coming upon MN Whlie ne was en-
gagged in the exercise, he led them around
the rock to show them how matters stood,
and then, returning to the starting point,
completed the lesson by making final leap.
The animals kept roaring during the whole
of the curious scene, talking together, as
the native who watched them said BY the
..Ef~ mi mo al n
dustrial animals become apter as they grow
older old birds, for instance, constructing
more artistic nests than young ones, and
little mammals, says the popular Science
Monthly like mice, becoming more adroit
with age. Yet, however ancient in the life
of the species these acquisitions may be,
thew have not the solidity of primordial in
stincts, and are lost rapidly if not used.
While among the mammals this business
lily matter, attended to by the mother, with
such invertebrates as bees and ants, in
which the females are simply egg laying
machines, the mothers educational function
is null, and the care of the young rests with
the sterile workers. Yet the mental side Of
the maternal function stbsists in mother
ants in a latent state, md virgin females
have been seen, accordEg to Huber, busy
ing themselves with the eggs and the larvae.
grand social affair, committed to the female
workers, who devote themselves with COM
plete abnegation tovtheir task and seem to
When the young have gone through their
metamorphoses, their nurses, now become
instructors, keep with them guiding them
through the labyrinth of the city in all its
windings and this education is probably
carried much further than observers are
able to follow it, for the working ants must
be trained for their duties. Their industry is
too complicated to be purely mechanical
and blind!y instructive, as is often supposed.
But the observation of this training requires
distinction between individual ants which
the human eye is hardly competent to make.
Among the saveholding ants the educa-
ton consists largely in transforming GER
tan inveterate tendencies. They make war
upon another species-the brown ants-cap-
ture their young, and bring them up to be
their own slaves, In ignorance of the species
to which they belong, and of it's traits An
equivalent TO this Transforming tendency Of
education may be found among the verte-
brates where, If we Ike the young early
enough, we can dis. b their hereditary
functional manifestations to a very consid-
cradle extent.
JAIL ABOUT LONDON.