Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1908-02-28
Sense in Lower Animals.

Can the lower creatures measure dis |
lance? Can they tell the difference be-
tween colors? In short can they reason |
with the same facility as human beings
do?
Some wonderful illustrations are being
brought forward by naturalists to coz
vince us that man hasn't got monopoly
on intellect altogether.
Now, as to the question as to whether
they perceive color. Everybody knows
that bull can tell red among a thou
sand other colors. But some naturalists
hold that insects have the same eye for
red-although it does not affect their
tempers as it does the bull For instance,
bumblebee will follow and hover over
red gown or parasol in the most per-
sistent fashion, alighting if the oppor-
tunity is given him, and showing the
greatest interest.
| The supposition that the sense of color
is possessed in high degree by animals,
and especially by birds, furnished basis
for some of the most beautiful of the Oar
winian theories of sexual selection. No
Darwinist doubts that the brilliant cOlors
of the male birds of some species are
destined to attract the attention of the
female birds, and this presupposes natu-
rally on the part of these birds a fine
sense of color.
Wallace has asserted that to the fact
that certain plants bear fruit of brilliant
colors is due their preservation, the ami
mails attracted by these colors, break the
fruits from the trees or plants. carry
them off and thus indirectly assist in the
dissemination of the seeds which they
contain er large tracts of land. And
this function of selection on the part of
animals presupposes in them certain
sense of color. Still, scientific documents
in support of these suggestions are rare.
DIR. Dahl, the celebrated German nat
uralist, relates some interesting expert
ments which he made with a monkey.
He colored some sweets with certain
colored dye, and some bitter substances
with that of another color After a few
attempts the monkey learned to leave,
without even tai ting, those articles of
food which were colored with the dye and
which indicated bitter tasting substances,
and seized AT once upon those which i'll
dictated sweets.
Varying the experiments sufficiently he
found that the monkey distinguished all
the different colors readily, save dark
blue. DIR. Dahl calls attention to the fact
that Mayer has stated that many savage
tribes cannot distinguish dark blue from
black, and that even children distinguish
this color later than all others.
AS to the general reason powers of the
lower creatures, John Burroughs, Ameri-
cas- foremost naturalist, said recently in
Outing:
"When I hear a person expatiating on
the reasoning powers of the lower ami
mails, as / very often do, want to tell
them of the wonderful reasoning powers
of the flies that poster our old COW in
summer. Those flies have measured the
length of old Brindle's tail so accurately
that they know the precise spots ON her
on these spots they settle and torment
her. Their behavior reveals great pow
ers of calculation and reasoning. By
what means they measured the swing of
that tail so accurately l do not know.
When l come styling up with a switch in
hand they dart away before can get in
stroke because they know l can reach
them; they take the measure of my arm
and switch on the instant-on the fly, as
it were.
"Now is not that reasoning just as good
as much of the reasoning of our new
school of nature writers? Or, take the
wit of the old COW herself. Yonder is a
very steep hillside, the high, abrupt bank
of an old river terrace. Along this bank
the cattle have made a series of parallel
paths, level as the top of the terrace
itself The paths, should think, are
about four feet apart, just far enough so
that the COW walking along one of them
can Craze at her ease over all the strip
of ground that lies between the two
paths. When she comes to the end she
steps up into the next path and repeats
the process and so on till the whole side
of the terrace has been grazed over. Now
does not this show that the COW is very
level headed, that she can meet difficult
problem and solve it as nationally as you
or l? Without the paths how awkward
and difficult the grazing would be-
Philadelphia Press