Book: The Human Side of Animals

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[Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History, New York_

THE INDIANS CLAIM THAT THE MOTHER BISON FORCED HER CALF TO ROLL OFTEN IN
A PUDDLE OF RED CLAY, SO THAT IT MIGHT BE INDISTINGUISHABLE AGAINST ITS
RED CLAY BACKGROUND.]

[Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History, New York_

THE ZEBRA IS ONE OF THE CLEVEREST OF CAMOUFLAGERS. THE BLACK-AND-WHITE
STRIPES OF HIS BODY GIVE THE EFFECT OF SUNLIGHT PASSING THROUGH BUSHES.]

Mimetic resemblances are worked out with great difficulty, except in
such cases as the nocturnal animals, which simply become one with their
surroundings. Mice, rats, moles, and bats wear overcoats that are very
inconspicuous, and when suddenly approached they appear almost
invisible. Some of the North American Indians claimed that buffaloes
made their calves wallow in the red clay to prevent them from being seen
when they were lying down in the red soil.

The kinds of protection from these mimetic resemblances are many and
varied: the lion, because of his sandy-colouring, is able to conceal
himself by merely crouching down upon the desert sands; the striped
tiger hides among the tufts of grass and bamboos of the tropics, the
stripes of his body so blending with the vertical stems as to prevent
even the natives from seeing him in this position. The kudu, one of the
handsomest of the antelopes, is a remarkable animal in several ways. His
camouflage is so perfect that it gives him magnificent courage. With his
spiral horns, white face, and striped coat tinted in pale blue, he is
almost invisible when hiding in a thicket. The perfect harmony of his
horns with the twisted vines and branches, and the white colourings with
blue tints in the reflected sunlight conceal him entirely.

The snow-leopard, which inhabits Central Asia, is stony-grey, with large
annular spots to match the rocks among which he lives. This colouration
conceals him from the sheep, upon which he preys; while the spotted and
blotchy pattern of the so-called clouded tiger, and the
peculiarly-barred skin of the ocelot, imitate the rugged bark of trees,
upon which these animals live.

One of the most unusual and skilled mimics is the Indian sloth, whose
colour pattern and unique eclipsing effects seem almost incredible to
those unfamiliar with the real facts. His home is in the trees, and he
has a deep, orange-coloured spot on his back, which would make him very
conspicuous if seen out of his home surroundings. But he is very clever,
and clings to the moss-draped trees, where the effect of the
orange-coloured spot is exactly like the scar on the tree, while his
hair resembles the withered moss so strikingly that even naturalists are
deceived.

Henry Drummond must have known the animal world rather well when he
remarked that "Carlisle in his blackest visions of 'shams and humbugs'
among humanity never saw anything so finished in hypocrisy as the
naturalist now finds in every tropical forest. There are to be seen
creatures, not singly, but in tens of thousands, whose every appearance,
down to the minutest spot and wrinkle, is an affront to truth, whose
every attitude is a pose for a purpose, and whose whole life is a
sustained lie. Before these masterpieces of deception the most ingenious
of human impositions are vulgar and transparent. Fraud is not only the
great rule of life in a tropical forest, but the one condition of it."

Many of the larger cats live in trees, and most of them have spotted or
oscillated skins, which aid them in hiding among foliage plants. The
puma who wears a brown coat is an exception, but it must be remembered
that he does not need the kind of coat his fellow friends wear. He
clings so closely to the body of a tree while waiting for his prey as to
be almost invisible.

This phenomenon is true throughout the animal world. Everywhere does
Nature aid in escape and capture. Only those skilled in the ways of the
wild fully realise how conspicuous amidst foliage, for instance, would
be a uniform colouration. A parti-coloured pattern is extremely
deceptive and thus protective, and for this reason one seldom sees in
Nature a background of one colour; and since the large majority of
animals need concealment, it is necessary for them to be clothed in
patterns that vary.

These variations are especially noticeable in young animals, and furnish
them with a mantle that is practically invisible to predatory enemies
during the time they are left unprotected by their parents. These
protective mantles often differ strikingly in pattern and colouration
from those of their parents, and indicate that the young animals
present the colouration and pattern of their remote forbears. It might
even be said that "the skins of the fathers are thrust upon the
children, even unto the third and fourth generation!" In fact, it is
quite probable that they give through this varying colouration the
"life-history" of their family.

In all hoofed animals--antelope, deer, horses--the protective
colouration is also adapted to habitat and environment. Most deer belong
to the forest, carefully avoiding the open deserts and staying near
water. They live chiefly in the jungle or scrub, and are usually spotted
with red and white in such a way as to be almost invisible to a casual
observer; some, however, that live in the very shady places are
uniformly dark so as to harmonise with their surroundings. The wild
horses and asses of Central Asia are dun-coloured--corresponding exactly
to their sandy habitat.

The Shakesperian conception of the human world as a stage may be
paralleled in the animal world. Animals, like human beings, have all a
definite role to play in the drama of life. Each is given certain
equipment in form, colour, voice, demeanour, ambitions, desires, and
natural habitat. Some are given much, others but little. Many have
succeeded well in the art of camouflage while endeavouring to make a
success in life. This success has brought the desired opportunity of
mating, rearing young, bequeathing to them their special gifts and
living in ease and comfort.

One of the most successful and striking cases of protective colouration
in young animals is found in wild swine. Here there is longitudinal
striping which marks them from head to tail in broad white bands, over a
background of reddish dark brown. The tapirs have a most unique form of
marking. It is similar in the young of the South American and Malayan
species. Their bodies are exquisitely marked in snow-white bars. At
their extremities these bars are broken up into small dots which tend to
overlap each other. During the daytime these young animals seek the
shade of the bushes and as the spots of sunlight fall upon the ground
they appear so nearly one with their environment as to pass unnoticed by
their enemies. The adults, however, vary greatly one from another in
colouration. The American species is self-coloured, while the Malayan
has the most unique pattern known to the animal world. The
fore-quarters, the head, and the hind-legs are black, while the rest of
the body from the shoulders backwards is of a dirt-white colour.

It has been observed by all students of Nature that bold and gaudy
animals usually have means of defending themselves that make them very
disagreeable to their enemies. They either have poisonous fangs, sharp
spines, ferocious claws, or disagreeable odours. There are still others
that escape destruction because of the bad company with which they are
associated by their enemies.

The reptiles offer us many good examples of mimicry. Most arboreal
lizards wear the colour of the leaves upon which they feed; the same is
true of the whip-snakes and the tiny green tree-frogs. A striking
example of successful camouflage is found in the case of a North
American frog whose home is on lichen-covered rocks and walls, which he
so closely imitates in colour and pattern as to pass unnoticed so long
as he remains quiet. I have seen an immense frog, whose home was in a
damp cave, with large green and black spots over his body precisely like
the spots on the sides of his home.

_Author Note:_ The word "mimicry" as used here implies a particular
kind of resemblance only, a resemblance in external appearance,
never internal, a resemblance that deceives. It does not imply
voluntary imitation. Both the words "mimicry" and "imitation" are
used to imply outward likeness. The object of the outward likeness
or resemblance is to cause a harmless or unprotected animal to be
mistaken for the dangerous one which he oftentimes imitates; or to
aid the unprotected animal in escaping unnoticed among the
surroundings he may simulate.

A splendid example of pure bluff is shown in the case of the harmless
Australian lizard, known scientifically under the name of
_chlamydosaurus kingii_. When he is undisturbed he seems perfectly
inoffensive, but when he becomes angry, he becomes a veritable
fiend-like reptile. In this condition he stands up on his hind legs,
opens his gaping mouth, showing the most terrible teeth, which, by the
way, have never been known to bite anything. Besides this forbidding
display he further adds to his terrible appearance by raising the most
extraordinary frill which is exquisitely decorated in grey, yellow,
scarlet, and blue. This he uses like an umbrella, and if in this way he
does not succeed in frightening away his enemy, he rushes at him, and
lashes him with his saw-like tail. Even dogs are terrified at such
camouflage and leave the successful bluffer alone.

In all parts of the tropics are tree-snakes that lie concealed among the
boughs and shrubs. Most of them are green, and some have richly coloured
bands around their bodies which look not unlike gaily coloured flowers,
and which, no doubt, attract flower-seeking insects and birds. Among
these may be mentioned the deadly-poisonous snakes of the genus _elaps_
of South America. They are so brilliantly provided with bright red and
black bands trimmed with yellow rings that it is not uncommon for a
plant collector to attempt to pick them up for rare orchids!

Wherever these snakes are found, are also found a number of perfectly
harmless snakes, absolutely unlike the dangerous ones in habit and life,
yet coloured precisely the same. The _elaps fulvius_, for example, a
deadly venomous snake of Guatemala, has a body trimmed in simple black
bands on a coral-red ground, and in the same country and always with him
is found a quite harmless snake, which is coloured and banded in the
same identical manner. The terrible and much-feared _elaps lemnicatus_
has the peculiar black bands divided into divisions of three by narrow
yellow rings, thus exactly mimicking a harmless snake, the _pliocerus
elapoides_, both of which live in Mexico. Presumably, the deadly variety
assumes the colouring of the harmless kind in order to deceive intended
victims as to his ferocity.

Surely this is sufficient evidence that colouration and pattern-design
is a useful camouflage device of the great struggle for existence. And
it is safe to assert that any animal that has enemies and still does not
resort to protective colouration or mimicry in some form is entirely
able to protect itself either by its size, strength, ferocity, or by
resorting to safety in numbers. Elephants and rhinoceroses, for example,
are too powerful to be molested when grown, except in the rarest cases,
and are furthermore thoroughly capable of protecting their young.
Hippopotamuses are protected by their immense heads, and are capable of
defending their young from crocodiles even when in the water.

The bison and buffalo, which were once so powerful on the plains of
North America, were protected by their gregarious habits, which
terrorised their enemies--the wolves. Their nurseries were a feature of
their wisdom. These were circular pens where the tall grass was tramped
down by expectant mothers for the protection of their young. This
natural nursery was protected from the inside by sentinels who went
round and round the pen constantly guarding the young not only from the
attack of wolves but also from venturing forth alone too early into the
open unprotected plains. In a similar way the snow-pens of the moose of
the Far North serve to protect them from the hungry hordes of wolves of
which they live in constant danger. This indicates that the annihilation
of the bison and buffalo was due, not to lack of wisdom, but to man's
inhumanity; for, taking advantage of their nurseries, the men crouched
near and concealing themselves in the grass killed not only the mothers
for food but even the young in their savage sport.

The large majority of monkeys are protectively coloured with some shade
of brown or grey, with specially marked faces. Entire packs of
Ceylonese species will, at the slightest alarm, become invisible by
crouching on a palm-tree. One of the most strikingly coloured African
monkeys is jet black with a white bushy tail, and a face surrounded by a
white ring, or mantle of long silky hair. He thus simulates so
strikingly the hanging white lichens upon the trees that he is rarely
seen by his enemies.

A book might be written upon the various ways that animals, when closely
associated with other animals or human beings, imitate them. Darwin says
that "two species of wolves, which had been reared by dogs, learned to
bark, as does sometimes the jackall," and it is well known that certain
dogs, when reared by cats, imitate their habits, even to the licking of
their feet and the washing of their faces. If a mongrel dog associates
with a trained dog for any period of time it is remarkable the progress
he will make. For this same reason young dogs are carried on hunting
trips with trained dogs that they may learn by imitation the art of
hunting.

In the whole realm of Nature there is nothing more wonderful than this
matter of protective colouration. Animals do not monopolise the art. It
extends through the whole world of living creatures. The fact that
individual animals have no voluntary control over their own colour is
eloquent testimony as to the existence of mysterious life forces and
racial evolutions which are still far beyond the grasp of man's
understanding. To see a tiny chameleon adapt his colouring to his
environment, be it red, green, or yellow, in the twinkling of an eye, is
to have seen an argument for God Himself.




II

ANIMAL MUSICIANS

_"Nay, what is Nature's self,
But an endless strife towards
Music, euphony, rhyme?"_

--WATSON.


The great thinkers of the age believe that the world is one marvellous
blending of innumerable and varied voices. This unison of sound forms
the great music of the spheres, which the poets and philosophers have
written so much about. Even from a purely scientific point of view,
there is no denying that this music exists. Aviators tell us that when
they listen from a distance to the myriads of noises and sounds that
arise over a great city, these are all apparently lost in a modulated
hum precisely like the vibrations of an immense tuning-fork, and
appearing as but a single tone. Thus the immense noise going from our
world is musically digested into one tone, and the aviator soaring above
the earth hears only the one sound--the music of the spheres.

The deep appreciation that animals have for music is becoming a
generally known fact among those who have studied them closely. Every
one must admit that there is much truth in the old saying that "music
hath charms to soothe the savage breast." Music is composed of
vibrations, which act with great power upon the nervous system of men
and animals alike. Each is affected according to his particular physical
and mental development.

Professor Tarchanoff has made a careful study of the influence of music
upon men and animals. He has demonstrated, by means of a machine which
carefully registers the various activities of the hands and fingers,
that when the hands are so tired and fatigued that they cannot make any
marks except a straight line on the cylinder which registers the
movements, music will so stimulate the nerves as to cause all fatigue to
disappear. And as soon as the fingers again touch the cylinder, they
begin to draw lines of various kinds and heights, thus proving that the
music had rested the fingers and placed them under control. Various
kinds of music were used: that of a melancholy nature had precisely the
opposite effect to that of a lively, cheerful character; the nerves of
the hands could either be contracted or expanded according to the nature
of the music.

Like all real scientists, Professor Tarchanoff does not claim to give
any positive explanation of these facts. He believes, however, that the
voluntary muscles act in the same relation to the music as the
heart--that is, that cheerful, happy music affects the excito-motor
nerves, sets up a vibration in those nerves which produces cheer and
good feeling; while sad, morbid music plays along the depressant nerves
and produces sadness and depression.

In view of these facts, it is easy to see how animals, with their
nervous temperaments and ready response to outside stimuli, are greatly
influenced by various kinds of music. It is scientifically recognised
that music tends to increase the elimination of carbonic acid and
increases not only the consumption of oxygen, but even the activities of
the skin. There is no doubt that good music at meal time aids the
digestion.

[Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History, New York_

MONKEYS ARE THE MOST MUSICAL OF ALL ANIMALS. WHEN THEY CONGREGATE FOR
"CONCERTS," AS SOME OF THE TRIBES DO, THE AIR IS FILLED WITH WEIRD
STRAINS OF MONKEY-MUSIC.]

[Illustration: CATS, UNLIKE DOGS, ARE VERY FOND OF MUSIC. AND IT HAS
BEEN PROVED THAT THEIR MUSIC-SENSE CAN BE DEVELOPED TO A REMARKABLE
DEGREE.]

Cats have a species of unbeautiful music all their own, generally
produced at late hours of the night on the house tops, garden walls, and
in the alleys of our dwellings. Miss Cat's songs are far too chromatic
to be appreciated by human ears; as a result her concertos and solos are
rarely spoken of by human critics. However, Nature does sometimes
produce a Tetrazzini, Alice Neilson, or Caruso, in the form of a cat,
which really delights in harmonious combinations of sound. I know, for
instance, of a cat called "Nordica" owned by Presson Miller, who
apparently takes the greatest delight in hearing good vocal and
instrumental music. Another well-educated musical cat belongs to a
friend who plays a guitar. This cat delights in touching the strings
with his dainty, soft paws, and springs with delight as the notes are
produced.

The _Animal World_ speaks of five musical cats, which were carried to
various parts of the world and exhibited as "bell-ringers," and their
owner made a fortune out of their concerts. Five bells were suspended
from a hoop, which hung above the stage, and to each bell was attached a
small rope. At a given signal, each cat would seize a bell and give it a
pull. This was done with such perfect time and spirit that one might
well believe it was the work of human musicians and not of cats.

Cows are responsive to certain kinds of music. A funeral march makes
them sad, and ragtime so disturbs them that they give but little milk.
The newspapers claim that Charles W. Ward, who owns a ranch near Eureka,
California, says that the right kind of music will increase the
production of milk, and that he uses a phonograph in the dairy barn.

A friend, who has travelled much, tells the story of a musical cow. He,
in company with two other friends, was coming up a river in a small boat
singing. Just as they turned a bend, they saw a small brown cow,
suckling her calf, along with several other cows in a nearby pasture.
The cow seemed so fascinated with the music that she plunged into the
water and waded up to her head trying to reach the boat. As they rowed
along, she ran up and down the bank, cutting capers in a most
astonishing manner and lowing and bellowing in testimony of her delight
in the music. She would leap, skip, roll on the grass, paw up the earth,
like an angry bull, and chase off like a playful kitten, always with a
low plaintive bellow as a final farewell. These friends often rowed up
the river just to see if the musical cow was there, and she always
greeted them in the usual appreciative manner.

Lions and tigers are proverbially fond of music. Professional trainers
tell us that these animals, when tamed, will not do their stunts without
the accompaniment of music. The story is told of a group of tigers which
recently refused to perform, because the musicians, while the
performance was going on, went on a strike. At once when the music
ceased, the animals returned to their respective seats and no amount of
encouragement would induce them to continue their performance. No
amount of threats would induce them to work without music. The trainer
dared not punish them too severely, yet he feared that if they were not
forced to perform, they might continue to strike. But such was not the
case, for on the morrow when the musicians returned they acted as never
before.

Sheep, both tame and wild, are exceedingly fond of music, and the
shepherds of Scotland have used it with their sheep for ages. When the
shepherd plays upon his flute or bagpipe, they gather around him and
listen apparently with great satisfaction; when the music ceases, they
wander out to feed, and in the evening he leads them home by the single
strains of his flute.

Circus horses are not only fond of music, but are partial to certain
tunes, and demand that these be played while they are doing their turn.
If for any reason the band changes the tune during a performance, they
immediately refuse to go on with their stunts.

The original fountain of all music was based on the various voices and
sounds of animals--and each musical instrument was originally devised to
imitate these sounds. For all instruments--the bass drum, flute,
clarinet, trombone, trumpet, violin, and even pipe organ--an animal may
be mentioned that owns the fundamental tones in its voice, and which
man has imitated. Castanets, for example, were imitations of the
rattlesnakes; the first musical instruments of any savage tribe of men
are made so as to represent the voices of the chief animals of that
particular locality.

Every animal of the higher order, with the exception of a few mute dogs
that belong to very hot or cold climates, is possessed of some sort of
musical tone, expressive of pain or joy, and by means of which he can
express certain emotions. Darwin claimed that the voice of the gibbon,
while extremely loud, was very musical; and Waterhouse said that this
musician sang the scale with considerable accuracy, at least
sufficiently well for a trained violinist to accompany him.

Often when dogs hear music they howl, or attempt to sing. Some show a
decided preference for certain kinds of music, and actually try to
imitate it. Gross tells of a friend of his who had a dog with which he
often gave performances. The dog would accompany his master, when he
sang in falsetto, with howls that were unmistakably attempts at singing,
and which readily adapted themselves to the pitch of the tone. This was
a musical accomplishment of which he was very proud.

On a subject of which so little is known, there are, of course, diverse
opinions. Scheitlin believed that music is actually disagreeable to a
dog, but he says that it may be questioned whether or not the dog does
not in some way accompany it. And Romanes, the great animal authority,
thought the same thing. He had a terrier, which accompanied him when he
sang, and actually succeeded in following the prolonged notes of the
human voice with a certain approximation to unison. Dr. Higgins, a
musician, claimed that his large mastiff could sing to the accompaniment
of the organ.

Alix gives such positive examples that they are really marvellous: "Pere
Pardies cites the case of two dogs that had been taught to sing, one of
them taking a part with his master. Pierquin de Gembloux also speaks of
a poodle that could run the scale in tune and sing very agreeably a fine
composition of Mozart's _My Heart It Sings at Eve_." All the scientists
in Paris, according to the same authority, went to see the dog belonging
to Dr. Bennati, and hear it sing the scale, which it could do perfectly.

Monkeys and apes most nearly approximate human musicians. In central
Africa these animal tribes have musical centres where they congregate
regularly for "concerts." Prof. Richard S. Garner, the noted authority
on apes and monkeys, believes that the time has already come for the
establishment of a school for their education. He would have the courses
beginning with a kindergarten and advancing through as many grades as
the students required. Prof. Garner furthermore believes that we have
little understanding of the gorilla, and points out that these animals
have a very happy and harmonious home life, the father being highly
domestic and delighting in the company of his wife and children. It is
not uncommon to find five or six generations in a certain district of
the jungle.

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