Evening star., 1953-01-03
Chickens and People

In report to the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, DR.. Nicholas E.
Colias of Cornell University has confirmed what
many chicken farmer has long suspected
namely, that rooSters, hens and their little ones
are not nearly SO dumb as they look and sound
Far from it. Actually, they have an effective
language of their own, and it makes plenty of
sense to them, even though it may seem to us to
be nothing but lot of meaningless squawks
clucks and similar noises.
This chicken talk, in fact, is so purposeful
and conveys such clear-cut ideas back and forth
among its speakers that some of our scientists
are themselves beginning to understand it. Dr.
Collias, for one, is sure that he has succeeded
In tranSlating much Of it into intelligible human
terms. Through careful experimentation, for
example, he has convinced himself that when a
hen says "kuk kuk -kuk," she is telling her chicks
that she has found some food and that they had
better come and get it, Similarly, when she cuts
loose with certain type of loud and agitated
squawk, she is warning them to watch out for
the hawk upstairs.
Thus, in making sense out of such fowl Ian
guage, our scientists seem to be scoring another
advance, and the advance encourages the hope
that they may yet manage to do the same in the
realm of human articulation. But let no one sup
pose that they face an easy time of it in that
Spect. Alas no. For mans world-what with
instantaneous mass communication around the
globe, fast presses talking pictures, the radio,
television and the like-has become so loquacious,
so verbose, so caught in the middle of super
colossal torrent of words that all of us are in
danger Of sinking into a kind of universal
incoherence consisting merely of deafening
chatter, a cacophony of tongue -wagging without
meaning or any sure sense of direction. This is
something that quite obviously does not lend
itself readily to translation into ordered and
ineligible terms upon which everybody can
agree with full understanding.
BY way of contrast, chickens comprehend
each other we'll enough through their language
of just few noises. They can't write poems or
sing lovely songs, but they get along all right
(until somebody grabs them for dinner) without
talking their heads of. At any rate as creatures
that economic on words, they apparently have
clear idea of what's what in their world, their
minds-such as they are-being unbefuddled by
what their tongues say. Humans, on the other
hand, cannot claim that for themselves; on the
contrary, the more they articulate, the more
confused they seem to grow-the more they seem
headed toward the Tower of Babel
Our wordinesS, in sum. has grown so great
that it occasionally def1es and destroys UNDER
standing. Indeed, with the Communists deliber-
ately turning language upside down, the meaning
Of meaning itself is being lost in much of the
world, and large part of our unprecedented YER
boSity Is mere sound and fury signifying nothing
an idiots tale BOOSTERS and hens may be relatively
very dumb, but let us not be too contemptuous Of
them We could do worse than practice some of
their taciturnity, talking less, thinking more and
seeking to find wisdom through quiet meditation
In our all-too-noisy and loud-mouthed age.