Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-27
BURROUGHS THE CRITIC.
He Finds Fault with Mr.. Bostock's
Scienes-other Stories Examined.

We all are to regard the actions of the
lower animals In the light OF. our, own
psychology on reading "The Training
of Wild Animals" by Bostock evidently
knows the art of training animals well,
but of the science of 1t he seems to
know very little. That Is, while he is a
successful trainer, his notions Of animal
Psychology are very crude. For in
| stance. on one page he speaks Of the
lion as II it was endowed with a fair
measure Of human intelligence. and
had notions. feelings, and thoughts like
our own; ON the next page, when he
gets down to real business. he lays bare
its utter want of these things. He says
lion born and bred in captivity Is
more difficult to train than one caught
from the jungle. He does not fear
man: he knows his own power. He re-
CARDS man as an inferior, with an attf-
tude OF disdain and silent hauteur."
He accepts his food as tribute and his
care as homage due" He is aristo-
cratic in his independence" "Daep IN
him-so deep that he barely realize
it's Observation-Disclosures a desire FOR
freedom and an unutterable longing for
the blue sky and the free air." When
his training is begun "he meets II with
a reserved majesty and silent indiffer-
ence, as though he had a dumb realiza-
ton of his wrongs" All this Is very
human way of looking at the matter,
and is typical of the way we all more
or less speak of the lower animals, de-
filming them to ourselves in terms OF
our own mentality, but 1t leads to, false
notions 10
animal fretting and struggling In. its
cage as longing for. freedom. picturing
to itself the joy of the open airiand the
Tree hills and sky, when the truth Of
the matter undoubtedly is that the fiut-
tering bird or restless lions or fox SIM
ply feels discomfort in confinement.
It's sulferings are physical, and not
mental Its instincts lead it to struggle
Tor freedom. 1t reacts strongly 2 gainst
the barriers that hold It. and tiles in
every way to overcome them. Free
dom. as an idea or a conception of a
condition of life, is. of course, beyond
its capacity. Bostock shows how the
animal learns entirely by association,
and not at all by. the exercise of
thought or reason, and yet a moment
later says: THE animal is becoming
amenable to the mastery of man. and i'm
doing so his own reason is being devel-
oped," which is much like saying that
when a man is practicing on the flying
trapeze his wings are being developed.
The lion learns slowly through associa-
tion-through repeated sense impress
sions. First a long stick is put into his
cage. If this is destroyed, 1t il re-
placed by another, until he gets used
to 1t and tolerates it's presence. Then
he is gently rubbed with it at the hands
of the keeper. He gets used to this and
comes to like it, Then the stick is
baited with a piece of meat, and. in
taking the meat the animal gets still
better acquainted with the stick. and
SO ceases to fear it. When this stage
is reached the stick is shortened day by
day, until finally 1t is not much longer
than the hand" The next step Is to-
let the hand take the place of the stick
in the stroking process This is
great step taken, for one Of the most
difficult things is to be touched with
the human hand" After time a COL
lar is slipped around the lions neck
when he Is asleep, with a chain at
tached. He Is now chained to one end
of the cage. Then a chair is intro
duced into the cage; then this king of
beasts, whose reason was being devel-
oped, who had such clear notions Of in
ferior and superior. who knows his
own powers, etc, usually springs for
the chair. seeking to demolish it, and SO
in time he tolerates the chair. Then
the trainer, after some preliminary
feints. walks into the cage and seats
himself in the chair. And so. inch by
inch. as 1t were, the trainer gets con-
troll of the animal and subdues him to
his purposes. not by appealing to his
mind, for he has none, but by impress
sions upon his senses.
A Maine correspondent sends me an m
teresting note of robin he heard singing
a song of which the call of the wi1ipBoor.
VIII formed q part 1t was on summer
afternoon after q rain, AT first noted
e1h,y mat II was whippoorwils call but
a9il consciousness that the middle Of the
Taf to n invn. time for
particular whippoorwill was not combining
strictly to the song Of his kind 1
rus away my work and leaned From
In the birds performance. #H
At intervals of about two minutes the
was Whippoor@iIis nose fna is snoush
DIT with curious turn at the end of IT.
with .yarfaffOnS.t i couldn't
make out the bird from my window 50 I
hurried downstairs and ont into the gar
den, where Ilocated him after a moments
search among the outer branches Of one
OF the apple trees. 1t was an adult male
robin mocking a whippoorwill at the top
, This all seems to be perfectly credible
! have myself heard a robin with the cali
OF the quail injected into his song. and an
other robin that initiated perfectly the
song Of the brown thrashet. al
1t has been well said that the gray
SQUIRRELS one sees everywhere IN some Of
our New England towns are an indication
OF higher civilization. 1t is certainly a
pleasure to see these graceful creatures
running across trolley tracks or over
lawns unmolested. A stranger would
have very high estimate Of the people
OF q city that could draw to II these shy
animals. Like many rodents. however
gray SQUIRRELS will eat birds nests
friend on whom can rely told me of two
or three instances In Arlington, Mass,
where gray Squirrelss had robbed robins
nests. having been caught in the very act
The other day in going along a Wild
mountain stream, I was attracted.eby
fresh gray squirrel track and on follow
Ing 1t. found where the squirrel had Killed
and eaten a mouse. He had evidently dug
ont the mouse, for / saw where he had