The Washington herald., 1914-01-04
MEN AND APES DISTANTLY RELATED BY BLOOD?

the crane arrived in washington In good
condition.
a4e was a strange bird. When We let
him out Of the crate, he surveyed US
with q solemn and knowing countenance.
He was not frightened In the least. This
4 he seemed to say. is the place for me-
He had a history. I am sure, and we
used to speculate a good deal over his
possible experiences.
Tse Crane Knew His Rights.
"One autumn we left him until the
Hast while transferring the large birds
from their summer Enclosure TO their
winter quarters. Going back two keep
ers met him on the way In. He dion
mean to be left behind and had climbed
the high wire netting. With a keeper
holding the tip of each outstretched
wing, he gravely came across the lawn.
conscious. SO It appeared. that he under,
stood his rights and meant TO uphold
them. He died, however, and was truly
mourned by all his human associates
Are animals controlled by instinct
alone?" asked M. Baker.
You are trying to drag me onto night
ing ground" he answered. There are
always two groups Of debaters when that
question comes up. cannot believe that
animals are governed entirely by instinct
Yet II is hard to tell where instinct leaves
on and reasoning begins; as perplexing
as It would be the attempt to draw a
definite line between gambling and the
investment of money. The village cow,
think, his convinced many a boy that
she does some things with a purpose
worked out in advance Of the acts
"Once, when visiting In the country, i
was impressed by the mental operations
of the family dog. My host wanted to
go to>town without him. But khe dog
vanished while we were hitching the
horse to the buggy. When we were a
mile from the house the dog came into
the road from the woods. He made his
excuses by loud banks and an energetic
wagging of his tail. II may have been
an old trick, put it had its origin In some
original thinking.
my friend, DIR. Hornaday, director of
the New York Geological Park. often
speaks OF Donhung, an orang-outang,
who, he says, was an engineer, an in
|vestigator. and a philosopher. He was
a Jungle beast. and what he learned he
picked up himself That he had a rddI-
mentary knowledge OF at least one Of
the laws of physics was shown when he
used the crossbar Of the trapese in his
cage to pry a number of horizontal bars
from their fastenings- He had first tried
and failed to remove the bars with his
hands.
How He Saw His NeishbOr.
Having found a lever, he employed 1t
to separate the bars OF his cage, SO that
he could put his head through the open
ing and see his unknown neighbor in the
next enclosure. Meanwhile, Donhung re-
fused TO learn the common tricks by
which the generality of apes and mon
keys show OF to their human visitors.
He was a thoughtful beast and wasted
no time on trivialities.
"And there Is the elephant. who recog-
MIXING the superiority of man, puts away
his independent habits of the forest and
obeys the laws of his captors. He ac-
cepts the inevitable with no outward
signs of rebellion. Indeed, he Is SO
adaptable that 1t is cheaper TO catch wild
elephants and train them than 1t Is to
breed elephants that have been broken
to harness and taught 10 work. The ele-
plant has grown physically from the
stature of a wild ram to his present
height and bulk. Doubtless he has de-
veloped mentally.
In my opinion. beavers think out their
own problems. l would call them spe-
cialists Enos A. Mills, the naturalist
who lived for many years in the Rocky
Mountains. tells Of a colony Of beavers.