Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-10-23


fastened to it's foot and refuses to let
go. then the duck, salt water bird
which may never have been in fresh
water at all. flies to some pond and
browns it! The crow caucuses which
everyone has seen and wondered at.
are the decision meetings of the birds
as to who shall go South and who shall
go to the coast for the winter. The
coast will only support a certain num-
Der. and each is sent to his LOCALITY, as
definitely as men send each other. He
told why the beaver and otter hate each
other and fight to the death, whenever
| they meet. The beavers hate fish and
the smell of fish. and the otter in his
winter fishing under the ice, often en-
tiers the beavers home to eat fish and
breathe, leaving the hateful stuff for
the beaver to clean out. All these things
were learned by the work of the Nature
student, not of the scientist. The Sci
enlist studies scales, vertebrae, bones,
and never thinks of the world of life.
We are too much bound up in facts and
the outer realities of things. We ought
to study the world of spirit, for spirit
is the only real thing, after all
If we merely judge by facts we may
be mis}ed, like the German scholar who
observed people eating CLANS and then
wildly cheering and shouting, went
home aud wrote in book that Ameri-
cans eat small bivalve which has the
same effect upon them as champagne.
| all because he did not know that the
people he had seen were celebrating an
| lection campaign. The idea that the
same species of animal always does the
same thing. he said, was false. Animals
| are always doing what one least ex-
poets, and show marked individuality.
He cited many instances of this. In one
case, the animal was a boy whom he
asked why a PERSONS hair turned grey
and fell out before the beard did. The
boy replied that the hair was Is years
| the older. He had seen a wOodcock
with a broken leg go to clay bank and
bandage and set it's own limb. Two
orioles had tied three sticks together in
the form of triangle, hung it in a most
wonderfully intelligent manner and
built their nest in it, A bear had been
killed by a dead-fall and its mate went
and lay down beside it, fondling it like
a human being. One who watched ami
mails was always learning something
new.
The strange actions of animals were
rot so much the result of instinct as of
ItrainiEg. In fact. people called every
thing they could not explain instinct
when in fact instinct played a much
smaller part in the life of animals than
had been supposed. There were in
stances without number in which ami
lmals had been trained to do all sorts of
Things entirely unnatural to them. And
Ievery young animal was trained by its
parents for the life it was to lead. The
Icat with her kittens was a familiar il.
Illustration. He knew of man who had
a dog which used to sit up and beg for
food. A gray cat belonging to the same
family was discovered practicing the
same thing in the orchard, and in .
few days came in and set up too. Not
lonly that, but it trained four of its
five kittens to do it. Many animals had
become trained from force of circum-
stances to do things not according to
the instinct of their species. An in
IStance was the fish-hawk, which was
Ireally u land bird of prey, and every
lsummer, the old birds could be seen
; training their young to catch fish. The
Imigrations of birds We're not the choice
of instinct teaching them to go north
or south No bird captured and
brought up away from its kind has any
idea of north or south The instinct
lies in the impulse to move at certain
Sc asons of the year. and in the strong
er instinct. common to all animals, to
60 with the crowd. The crowd have
| -, !, InfA
the way. The young follow and learn
it, Instinct extends no farther than
that
| Even the feeding of animals is a matter
of training. A tame squirrel taken from
the nest when young does not know how
to crack nuts. All young animals and
birds do exactly what they see their pa
rents do, and DR. Long gave many ludi.
! crous descriptions of this fact. His opin-
ion was that animals make each other un-
. derstand what they wish to convey by
means of tclepathy. Human telepathy
he regards as the remnant OF d power nc
longer Used. The cvolutions of flight
birds must be directed by orders, but
how? No signal of voice could be under
stood in many instances, were it uttered
The impulse is sent out and is instantly
felt and obeyed Animals and birds dc
not talk because they have a. better
method of communication. He cited In
| StdHttS Vi lUc way animals commune
cate miles apart, buzzards being a COM
mon instance. The reason one seldom sees
such coed shots when out hunting as
when one has no gun is the same reason
that makes every partridge hide when a
hunting hawk appears, even though one
not hunting may have been sailing about
over their heads for hours. The mental
excitement sends out the warning impulse
One of the first instincts of the animal
nature is To follow ana another is to obey
| Both are evinced by the actions of all
young. He related an instance showing
the difference between training and in
stinct and the conflict that sometimes
arises between the two. He had a dog
named Don. which used to go in swim
ming with him and carry the towels back
to the landlady. or at least had beer
trained to do so. Finally. one day the
landlady announced that there were no
more towels because none had been re-
turned. 1t finally developed that Don had
hidden them all in obedience to his in
Stinct to hide away whatever he did not
want. His training taught him to so and
get them when he was scolded for not
bringing them to the house.
The individual experience of animals
was another important factor in their
lives, in addition to instinct and training
| IT there were all these factors in the
animal mind, asked Dr. Long what about
reason? He did not believe that animals
had reason. Where, then, was the divid-
| ing line DpfUC n nd IL