The minds and manners of wild animals; a book of personal observations
Hornaday, William Temple, 1854-1937
mss z<$& THE MINDS AND MANNERS OF WILD ANIMALS A BOOK OF PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Sc.D., A.M. DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. AUTHOR OP "THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY," "TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE," "CAMP PIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES," "OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE," ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS The wild animal must think, or die. ***** 'Prove all things; holdfast that which is good. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1922 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY Printed in the United States of America The right of translation is reserved Published May, 1922 QL 7SI His TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK, WHOSE SAFETY DEPENDS UPON THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE MINDS OF WILD ANIMALS, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED AS A TOKEN OF APPRECIATION AND REGARD PREFACE During these days of ceaseless conflict, anxiety and unrest among men, when at times it begins to look as if "the Cau- casian" really is "played out," perhaps the English-reading world will turn with a sigh of relief to the contemplation of wild animals. At all events, the author has found this diver- sion in his favorite field mentally agreeable and refreshing. In comparison with some of the alleged men who now are cursing this earth by their baneful presence, the so-called "lower animals" do not seem so very "low" after all! As a friend of the animals, this is a very proper time in which to compare them with men. Furthermore, if thinking men and women desire to know the leading facts concerning the intel- ligence of wild animals, it will be well to consider them now, before the bravest and the best of the wild creatures of the earth go down and out under the merciless and inexorable steam roller that we call Civilization. The intelligence and the ways of wild animals are large subjects. Concerning them I do not offer this volume as an all-in-all production. Out of the great mass of interesting things that might have been included, I have endeavored to select and set forth only enough to make a good series of sample exhibits, without involving the general reader in a hopelessly large collection of details. The most serious ques- tion has been: What shall be left out? Mr. A. R. Spofford, first Librarian of Congress, used to declare that "Books are made from books"; but I call the reader to bear witness that this volume is not a mass of quo- tations. A quoted authority often can be disputed, and for this reason the author has found considerable satisfaction in relying chiefly upon his own testimony. vi PREFACE Because I always desire to know the opinions of men who are writing upon their own observations, I have felt free to express my own conclusions regarding the many phases of animal intelligence as their manifestation has impressed me in close-up observations. I have purposely avoided all temptations to discuss the minds and manners of domestic animals, partly because that is by itself a large subject, and partly because their minds have been so greatly influenced by long and close association with man. The domestic mammals and birds deserve inde- pendent treatment. A great many stories of occurrences have been written into this volume, for the purpose of giving the reader all the facts in order that he may form his own opinions of the animal mentality displayed. Most sincerely do I wish that the boys and girls of America, and of the whole world, may be induced to believe that the most interesting thing about a wild animal is its mind and its reasoning, arid that a dead animal is only a poor decaying thing. If the feet of the young men would run more to seeing and studying the wild creatures and less to the killing of them, some of the world's valuable species might escape being swept away tomorrow, or the day after. The author gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Munsey's Magazine, McQure's Magazine and the Sunday Magazine Syndicate for permission to copy herein various portions of his chapters from those publications. W. T. H. The Anchorage, Stamford, Conn. December 19, 192 1. CONTENTS Page I. A SURVEY OF THE FIELD I. The Lay of the Land 3 II. Wild Animal Temperament &• Individuality 14 III. The Language of Animals 25 IV. The Most Intelligent Animals .... 40 V. The Rights of Wild Animals .... 49 II. MENTAL TRAITS OF WILD ANIMALS VI. The Brightest Minds Among Animals. VII. Keen Birds and Dull Men .... VIII. The Mental Status of the Orang-Utan IX. The Man-likeness of the Chimpanzee. X. The True Mental Status of the Gorilla 93 XL The Mind of the Elephant .... XII. The Mental and Moral Traits of Bears XIII. Mental Traits of a Few Ruminants. XIV. Mental Traits of a Few Rodents .. XV. The Mental Traits of Birds. . .. XVI. The Wisdom of the Serpent .... XVII. The Training of Wild Animals ..." 54 62 70 82 101 124 142 160 171 194 204 Page III. THE  Animals . . 233 XXI. Courage in Wild Animals 241 IV. THE BASER PASSIONS XXII. Fear as a  . . . , . 302 The Curtain. 314 ILLUSTRATIONS Overpowering Curiosity of a Mountain Sheep .... Frontispiece Christmas at the Primates' House Facing page 42 The Trap-Door Spider's Door and Burrow . .. Hanging Nest of the Baltimore Oriole Great Hanging Nests of the Crested Cacique . .. "Rajah," the Actor Orang-Utan Thumb-Print of an Orang-Utan The Lever That Our Orang-Utan Invented Page Portrait of a High-Caste Chimpanzee . i The Gorilla With the Wonderful Mind .... Tame Elephants Assisting in Tying a Wild Captive. Wild Bears Quickly Recognize Protection .... Alaskan Brown Bear, "Ivan," Begging for Food. The Mystery of Death The Steady-Nerved and Courageous Mountain Goat Fortress of an Arizona Pack-Rat Page 164 Wild Chipmunks Respond to Man's Protection . . Facing page 166 An Opossum Feigning Death " 166 Migration of the Golden Plover. (Map) Page 172 Remarkable Village Nests of the Sociable Weaver Bird Facing page 182 Spotted Bower-Bird, at Work on Its Unfinished Bower " 184 ix u 64 u 64 a 76 a 76 Page 78 H page 84 98 no 130 134 134 152 ILLUSTRATIONS Hawk-Proof Nest of a Cactus Wren facing page 196 A Peace Conference With an Arizona Rattlesnake Work Elephant Dragging a Hewn Timber .. The Wrestling Bear, "Christian," and His Partner Adult Bears at Play Primitive Penguins on the Antarctic Continent, Una- fraid of Man Richard W. Rock and His Buffalo Murderer . .. "Black Beauty" Murdering "Apache" . . .. 196 208 216 234 266 298 298 THE MINDS AND MANNERS OF WILD ANIMALS MAN AND THE WILD ANIMALS If every man devoted to his affairs, and to the affairs of his city and state, the same measure of intelligence and honest industry that every warm-blooded wild animal devotes to its affairs, the people of this world would abound in good health, prosperity, peace and happiness. To assume that every wild beast and bird is a sacred creature, peacefully dwelling in an earthly paradise, is a mistake. They have their wisdom and their folly, their joys and their sorrows, their trials and tribulations. As the alleged lord of creation, it is manJs duty to know the wild animals truly as they are, in order to enjoy them to the utmost, to utilize them sensibly and fairly, and to give them a square deal. I. A SURVEY OF THE FIELD. I THE LAY OF THE LAND THERE is a vast field of fascinating human interest, lying only just outside our doors, which as yet has been but little explored. It is the Field of Animal Intelligence. Of all the kinds of interest attaching to the study of the world's wild animals, there are none that surpass the study of their minds, their morals, and the acts that they perform as the results of their mental processes. In these pages, the term "animal" is not used in its most common and most restricted sense. It is intended to apply not only to quadrupeds, but also to all the vertebrate forms, — mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes. For observation and study, the whole vast world of living creatures is ours, throughout all zones and all lands. It is not ours to flout, to abuse, or to exterminate as we please. While for practical reasons we do not here address ourselves to the invertebrates, nor even to the sea-rovers, we can not keep them out of the background of our thoughts. The living world is so vast and so varied, so beautiful and so ugly, so delightful and so terrible, so interesting and so commonplace, that each step we make through it reveals things different and previously unknown. The Frame of Mind. To the inquirer who enters the field of animal thought with an open mind, and free from the trammels of egotism and fear regarding man's place in nature, 3 4 THE MINDS AND MANNERS this study will prove an endless succession of surprises and delights. In behalf of the utmost tale of results, the inquirer should summon to his aid his rules of evidence, his common sense, his love of fair play, and the inexorable logic of his youthful geometry. And now let us clear away a few weeds from the entrance to our field, and reveal its cornerstones and boundary lines. To a correct understanding of any subject a correct point of view is absolutely essential. In a commonplace and desultory way man has been mildly interested in the intelligence of animals for at least 30,000 years. The Cro-Magnons of that far time possessed real artis- tic talent, and on the smooth stone walls and ceilings of the caves of France they drew many wonderful pictures of mam- moths, European bison, wild cattle, rhinoceroses and other animals of their period. Ever since man took unto himself certain tractable wild animals, and made perpetual thralls of the horse, the dog, the cat, the cattle, sheep, goats and swine, he has noted their intelligent ways. Ever since the first cave- man began to hunt wild beasts and slay them with clubs and stones, the two warring forces have been interested in each other, but for about 25,000 years I think that the wild beasts knew about as much of man's intelligence as men knew of theirs. I leave to those who are interested in history the task of revealing the date, or the period, when scholarly men first began to pay serious attention to the animal mind. In 1895 when Mr. George J. Romanes, of London, pub- lished his excellent work on "Animal Intelligence,,, on one of its first pages he blithely brushed aside as of little account all the observations, articles and papers on his subject that had been published previous to that time. Now mark how swiftly history can repeat itself, and also bring retribution. In 1 9 10 there arose in the United States of America a group of professional college-and-university animal psycholo- OF WILD ANIMALS 5 gists who set up the study of "animal behavior." They dM this so seriously, and so determinedly, that one of the first acts of two of them consisted in joyously brushing aside as of no account whatever, and quite beneath serious considera- tion, everything that had been seen, done and said previous to the rise of their group, and the laboratory Problem Box. In view of what this group has accomplished since 1910, with their "problem boxes," their "mazes" and their millions of "trials by error," expressed in solid pages of figures, the world of animal lovers is entitled to smile tolerantly upon the cheer- ful assumptions of ten years ago. But let it not at any time be assumed that we are destitute of problem boxes; for the author has two of his own! One is called the Great Outdoors, and the other is named the New York Zoological Park. The first has been in use sixty years, the latter twenty-two years. Both are today in good working order, but the former is not quite as good as new. A Preachment to the Student. In studying the wild- animal mind, the boundary line between Reality and Dream- land is mighty easy to cross. He who easily yields to seduc- tive reasoning, and the call of the wild imagination, soon will become a dreamer of dreams and a seer of visions of things that never occurred. The temptation to place upon the sim- ple acts of animals the most complex and far-fetched interpre- tations is a trap ever ready for the feet of the unwary. It is better to see nothing than to see a lot of things that are not true. In the study of animals, we have long insisted that to the open eye and the thinking brain, truth is stranger than fiction. But Truth does not always wear her heart upon her sleeve for zanies to peck at. Unfortunately there are millions of men who go through the world looking at aiiimals, but not seeing them. Beware of setting up for wild animals impossible mental and moral standards. The student must not deceive himself by overestimating mental values. If an estimate must be 6 THE MINDS AND MANNERS made, make it under the mark of truth rather than above it. While avoiding the folly of idealism, we also must shun the ways of the narrow mind, and the eyes that refuse to see the truth. Wild animals are not superhuman demigods of wis- dom; but neither are they idiots, unable to reason from cause to effect along the simple lines that vitally affect their existence. Brain-owning wild animals are not mere machines of flesh and blood, set agoing by the accident of birth, and running for life on the narrow-gauge railway of Heredity. They are not "Machines in Fur and Feathers," as one naturalist once tried to make the world believe them to be. Some animals have more intelligence than some men; and some have far better morals. What Constitutes Evidence. The best evidence regard- ing the ways of wild animals is one's own eye-witness testimony. Not all second-hand observations are entirely accurate. Many persons do not know how to observe; and at times some are deceived by their own eyes or ears. It is a sad fact that both those organs are easily deceived. The student who is in doubt regarding the composition of evidence will do well to spend a few days in court listening to the trial of an important and hotly contested case. In collecting real evidence, all is not gold that glitters. Many a mind misinterprets the thing seen, sometimes inno- cently, and again wantonly. The nature fakir is always on the alert to see wonderful phenomena in wild life, about which to write; and by preference he places the most strained and marvelous interpretation upon the animal act. Beware of the man who always sees marvelous things in animals, for he is a dangerous guide. There is one man who claims to have seen in his few days in the woods more wonders than all the older American naturalists and sportsmen have seen added together. Now, Nature does not assemble all her wonderful phe- nomena and hold them in leash to be turned loose precisely when OF WILD ANIMALS 7 the great Observer of Wonders spends his day in the woods. Wise men always suspect the man who sees too many mar- velous things. The Relative Value of Witnesses. It is due that a word should be said regarding "expert testimony" in the case of the wild animal. Some dust has been raised in this field by men posing as authorities on wild animal psychology, whose observations of the world's wild animals have been confined to the chipmunks, squirrels, weasels, foxes, rabbits, and birds dwelling within a small circle surrounding some particular woodland house. In another class other men have devoted heavy scientific labors to laboratory observations on white rats, domestic rabbits, cats, dogs, sparrows, turtles and newts as the handpicked exponents of the intelligence of the animals of the world! Alas! for the human sense of Proportion! Fancy an ethnologist studying the Eskimo, the Dog-Rib Indian, the Bushman, the Aino and the Papuan, and then proceeding to write conclusively "On the Intelligence of the Human Race." The proper place in which to study the minds, manners and morals of wild animals is in the most thickly populated haunts of the most intelligent species. The free and untram- meled animal, busily working out its own destiny unhindered by man, is the beau-ideal animal to observe and to study. Go to the plain, the wilderness, the desert and the mountain, not merely to shoot everything on foot, but to see animals at home, and there use your eyes and your field-glass. See what normal wild animals do as "behavior," and then try to find out why they do it. The next best place for study purposes is a spacious, sani- tary and well-stocked zoological park, wherein are assembled great collections of the most interesting land vertebrates that can be procured, from all over the earth. There the student 8 THE MINDS AND MANNERS can observe many new traits of wild animal character, as they are brought to the surface by captivity. There will some indi- viduals reveal the worst traits of their species. Others wfll reveal marvels in mentality, and teach lessons such as no man can learn from them in the open. To study temperament, there is no place like a zoo. Even there, however, the wisest course, — as it seems to me, — is not to introduce too many appliances as aids to men- tal activity, but rather to see what the animal subject thinks and does by its own initiative. In the testing of memory and the perceptive faculties, training for performances is the best method to pursue. The reader has a right to know that the author of this volume has enjoyed unparalleled opportunities for the obser- vation and study of highly intelligent wild animals, both in their wild haunts and in a great vivarium; and these combined opportunities have covered a long series of years. Before proceeding farther, it is desirable to define certain terms that frequently will be used in these pages. The Animal Brain is the generator of the mind, and the clearing-house of the senses. As a mechanism, the brain of man is the most perfect, and in the descent through the mam- mals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes, the brain pro- gressively is simplified in form and function. Thought is the result of the various processes of the brain and nervous system, stimulated by the contributions of the senses. Sanity is the state of normal, orderly and balanced thought, as formulated by a healthy brain. Insanity is a state of mental disease, resulting in disor- dered, unbalanced and chaotic thought, destitute of reason. Reason is the manifestation of correct observation and healthful thought which recognizes both cause and effect, and leads from premise to conclusion. OF WILD ANIMALS 9 Intelligence is created by the possession of knowledge either inherited or acquired. It may be either latent or active; and it is the forerunner of reason. Instinct is the knowledge or impulse which animals or men derive from their ancestors by inheritance, and which they obey, either consciously or subconsciously in working out their own preservation, increase and betterment. Instinct of- ten functions as a sixth sense. Education is the acquirement of knowledge by precept or by observation; but animals as well as men may be self-taught, and become self-educated, by the diligent exercise of the ob- serving and reasoning faculties. The adjustment of a wild animal mind to conditions unknown to its ancestors is through the process of self-education, and by logical reasoning from premise to conclusion. The wild animal must think, or die. Animal intelligence varies in quantity and quality as much as animals vary in size. Idiots, maniacs and sleeping persons are the only classes of human beings who are devoid of intelli- gence and reasoning power. Idiots and maniacs also are often devoid of the common animal instinct that ordinarily promotes self-preservation from fire, water and high places. A heavily- sleeping person is often so sodden in slumber that his senses of smell and hearing are temporarily dead; and many a sleep- ing man has been asphyxiated by gas or smoke, or burned to death, because his deadened senses failed to arouse him at the critical moment. (This dangerous condition of mind can be cured by efforts of the will, exercised prior to sleep, through a determination resolutely to arouse and investigate every un- usual sensation that registers "danger" on any one of the senses.) The normal individual sleeps with a subconscious and sensitive mind, from which thought and reason have not been entirely eliminated. Every act of a man or animal, vertebrate or invertebrate, is based upon either reason or hereditary instinct. It is a mis- io THE MINDS AND MANNERS take to assume that because an organism is small it neces- sarily has no "mind," and none of the propelling impulse that we call thought. The largest whale may have less intelligence and constructive reasoning than a trap-door spider, a bee or an ant. To deny this is to deny the evidence of one's senses. A Measure for Animal Intelligence. The intelligence of an animal may be estimated by taking into account, sep- arately, its mental qualities, about as follows: i. General knowledge of surrounding conditions. 2. Powers of independent observation and reasoning. 3. Memory. 4. Comprehension under tuition. 5. Accuracy in the execution of man's orders. Closely allied to these are the moral qualities which go to make up an animal's temperament and disposition, about as follows: 1. Amiability, which guarantees security to its associates. 2. Patience, or submission to discipline and training. 3. Courage, which gives self-confidence and steadiness. 4. A disposition to obedience, with cheerfulness. All normal vertebrate animals exercise their intelligence in accordance with their own rules of logic. Had they not been able to do so, it is reasonable to suppose that they could never have developed into vertebrates, reaching even up to man himself. According to the laws of logic, this proposition is no more open to doubt or dispute than is the existence of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. But few persons have seen the Canyon, and far fewer ever have proven its existence by de- scending to its bottom; but none the less Reason admonishes all of us that the great chasm exists, and is not a debatable question. To men and women who really know the vertebrate animals by contact with some of them upon their own levels, the reason- ing power of the latter is not a debatable question. The only OF WILD ANIMALS u real question is: how far does their intelligence carry them? It is with puzzled surprise that we have noted the curious dili- gence of the professors of animal psychology in always writing of "animal behavior" and never of old-fashioned, common- sense animal intelligence. Can it be possible that any one of them really refuses to concede to the wild animal the pos- session of a mind, and a working intelligence? Yes. Animals do reason. If any one truth has come out of all the critical or uncritical study of the animal mind that has been going on for two centuries, it is this. Animals do reason; they always have reasoned, and as long as animals live they never will cease to reason. The higher wild animals possess and display the same fun- damental passions and emotions that animate the human race. This fact is subject to intelligent analysis, discussion and de- velopment, but it is not by any means a "question" subject to debate. In the most intellectual of the quadrupeds, birds and reptiles, the display of fear, courage, love, hate, pleasure, displeasure, confidence, suspicion, jealousy, pity, greed and generosity are so plainly evident that even children can and do recognize them. To the serious and open-minded student who devotes prolonged thought to these things, they bring the wild animal very near to the "lord of creation." To the question, "Have wild animals souls?" we reply, "That is a debatable question. Read; then think it over." Methods with the Animal Mind. In the study of ani- mal minds, much depends upon the method employed. It seems to me that the problem-box method of the investigators of "animal behavior" leaves much to be desired. Certainly it is not calculated to develop the mental status of animals along lines of natural mental progression. To place a wild creature in a great artificial contrivance, fitted with doors, cords, levers, passages and what not, is enough to daze or frighten any timid animal out of its normal state of mind and nerves. 12 THE MINDS AND MANNERS To put a wild sapajou monkey, — weak, timid and afraid, — in a strange and formidable prison box filled with strange machinery, and call upon it to learn or to invent strange me- chanical processes, is like bringing a boy of ten years up to a four-cylinder duplex Hoe printing-and-folding press, and saying to him: "Now, go ahead and find out how to run this machine, and print both sides of a signature upon it." The average boy would shrink from the mechanical mon- ster, and have no stomach whatever for "trial by error." I think that the principle of determining the mind of a wild animal along the lines of the professor is not the best way. It should be developed along the natural lines of the wild-animal mind. It should be stimulated to do what it feels most inclined to do, and educated to achieve real mental progress. I think that the ideal way to study the minds of apes, baboons and monkeys would be to choose a good location in a tropical or sub-tropical climate that is neither too wet nor too dry, enclose an area of five acres with an unclimbable fence, and divide it into as many corrals as there are species to be experimented upon. Each corral would need a shelter house and indoor playroom. The stage properties should be varied and abundant, and designed to stimulate curiosity as well as activity. Somewhere in the program I would try to teach orang-utans and chimpanzees the properties of fire, and how to make and tend fires. I would try to teach them the seed-planting idea, and the meaning of seedtime and harvest. I would teach sanitation and cleanliness of habit, — a thing much more easily done than most persons suppose. I would teach my apes to wash dishes and to cook, and I am sure that some of them would do no worse than some human members of the profes- sion who now receive $50 per month, or more, for spoiling food. In one corral I would mix up a chimpanzee, an orang-utan, a golden baboon and a good-tempered rhesus monkey. My apes would begin at two years old, because after seven or eight OF WILD ANIMALS 13 years of age all apes are difficult, or even impossible, as sub- jects for peaceful experimentation. I would try to teach a chimpanzee the difference between a noise and music, between heat and cold, between good food and bad food. Any trainer can teach an animal the difference between the blessings of peace and the horrors of war, or in other words, obedience and good temper versus cussedness and punishment. Dr. Yerkes' laboratory in Montecito, California, and his experiments there with an orang-utan and other primates, were in a good place, and made a good beginning. It is very much to be hoped that means will be provided by which his work can be prosecuted indefinitely, and under the most per- fect conditions that money can provide. I hope that I will live long enough to see Dr. Yerkes develop the mind of a young grizzly bear in a four-acre lot, to the utmost limits of that keen and sagacious personality. n WILD ANIMAL TEMPERAMENT AND INDIVIDUALITY IN man and in vertebrate animals generally, temperament is the foundation of intelligence and progress. Fifty years ago Fowler and Wells, the founders of the science of phrenology and physiognomy, very wisely differentiated and denned four "temperaments" of mankind. The six types now recognized by me are the morose, lymphatic, sanguine, nervous, hysterical and combative-, and their names adequately describe them. This classification applies to the higher wild animals, quite as truly as to men. By the manager of wild animals in cap- tivity, wild-animal temperament universally is recognized and treated as a factor of great practical importance. Mistakes in judging the temper of dangerous animals easily lead to trage- dies and sudden death. Fundamentally the temperament of a man or an animal is an inheritance from ancestors near or remote. In the human species a morose or hysterical temperament may possibly be corrected or improved, by education and effort. With animals this is rarely possible. The morose gorilla gives way to cheerfulness only when it is placed in ideally pleasant and stimulating social conditions. This, however, very seldom is possible. The nervous deer, bear or monkey is usually ner- vous to the end of its days. The morose and hysterical temperaments operate against mental development, progress and happiness. In the human species among individuals of equal mental calibre, the sanguine individual is due to rise higher and go farther than his nervous or lymphatic rivals. OF WILD ANIMALS 15 A characteristic temperament may embrace the majority of a whole species, or be limited to a few individuals. Many species are permanently characterized by the temperament common to the majority of their individual members. Thus, among the great apes the gorilla species is either morose or lymphatic; and it is manifested by persistent inactivity and sullenness. This leads to loss of appetite, indigestion, inac- tivity and early death. Major Penny's "John Gorilla" was a notable exception, as will appear in Chapter IX. The orang-utan is sanguine, optimistic and cheerful, a good boarder, affectionate toward his keepers, and friendly toward strangers. He eats well, enjoys life, lives long, and is well liked by everybody. Except when quite young, the chimpanzee is either nervous or hysterical. After six years of age it is irritable and difficult to manage. After seven years of age (puberty) it is rough, domi- neering and dangerous. The male is given to shouting, yell- ing, shrieking and roaring, and when quite angry rages like a demon. I know of no wild animal that is more dangerous per pound than a male chimpanzee over eight years of age. When young they do wonders in trained performances, but when they reach maturity, grow big of arm and shoulder, and masterfully strong, they quickly become conscious of their strength. It is then that performing chimpanzees become unruly, fly into sudden fits of temper, their back hair bristles up, they stamp violently, and sometimes leap into a terrorized orchestra. Next in order, they are retired willy-nilly from the (Stage, and are offered for sale to zoological parks and gardens having facilities for confinement and control. The baboons are characteristically fierce and aggressive, and in a wild state they live in troops, or even in herds of hun- dreds. Being armed with powerful canine teeth and wolf-like jaws, they are formidable antagonists, and other animals do not dare to attack them. It is because of their natural weapons, their readiness to fight like fiends, and their combined agility 1 6 THE MINDS AND MANNERS and strength that the baboons have been able to live on the ground and survive and flourish in lands literally reeking with lions, leopards, hyenas and wild dogs. The awful canine teeth of an old male baboon are quite as dangerous as those of any leopard, and even the leopard's onslaught is less to be feared than the wild rage of an adult baboon. In the Transvaal and Rhodesia, it is a common occurrence for an ambitious dog to go after a troop of baboons and never return. Temperamentally the commoner groups of monkeys are thus characterized: The rhesus monkeys of India are nervous, irritable and dangerous. The green monkeys of Africa are sanguine, but savage and treacherous. The langur monkeys of India are sanguine and peace-loving. The macaques of the Far East vary from the sanguine tem- perament to the combative. The gibbons vary from sanguine to combative. The lemurs of Madagascar are sanguine, affectionate and peaceful. Nearly all South American monkeys are sanguine, and peace-loving, and many are affectionate. The species of the group of Carnivora are too numerous and too diversified to be treated with any approach to com- pleteness. However, to illustrate this subject the leading species will be noticed. Temperaments of the Large Carnivores The lion is sanguine, courageous, confident, reposeful and very reliable. The tiger is nervous, suspicious, treacherous and uncertain. The black and common leopards are nervous and combative, irreconcilable and dangerous. The snow leopard is sanguine, optimistic and peace-loving. OF WILD ANIMALS 17 The puma is sanguine, good natured, quiet and peaceful. The wolves are sanguine, crafty, dangerous and cruel. The foxes are hysterical, timid and full of senseless fear. The lynxes are sanguine, philosophic, and peaceful. The mustelines are either nervous or hysterical, courageous, savage, and even murderous. The bears are so very interesting that it is well worth while to consider the leading species separately. Possibly our con- clusions will reveal some unsuspected conditions. Bear Temperaments, by Species. The polar bears are sanguine, but in captivity they are courageous, treacherous and dangerous. The Alaskan brown bears in captivity are sanguine, cour- ageous, peaceful and reliable, but in the wilds they are aggres- sive and dangerous. The grizzlies are nervous, keen, cautious, and seldom wan- tonly aggressive. The European brown bears are sanguine, optimistic and good-natured. The American black bears are sanguine and quiet, but very treacherous. The sloth bears of India are nervous or hysterical, and uncertain. The Malay sun bears are hysterical, aggressive and evil- tempered. The Japanese black bears are nervous, cowardly and ag- gressive. To those who form and maintain large collections of bears, involving much companionship in dens, it is necessary to keep a watchful eye on the temperament chart. The Deer. In our Zoological Park establishment there is no collection in which both the collective and the individual equation is more troublesome than the deer family. In their management, as with apes, monkeys and bears, it is necessary to take into account the temperament not only of the species, 1 8 THE MINDS AND MANNERS but also of each animal; and there are times when this neces- sity bears hard upon human nerves. The proneness of captive deer to maim and to kill themselves and each other calls for the utmost vigilance, and for heroic endurance on the part of the deer keeper. Even when a deer species has a fairly good record for com- mon sense, an individual may "go crazy" the instant a slightly new situation arises. We have seen barasingha deer penned up between shock-absorbing bales of hay seriously try to jump straight up through a roof skylight nine feet from the floor. We have seen park-bred axis deer break their own necks against wire fences, with ioo per cent of stupidity. Characters of Deer Species The white-tailed deer is sanguine, but in the fall the bucks are very aggressive and dangerous, and to be carefully avoided. The mule deer is sanguine, reasonable and not particularly dangerous. The elk is steady of nerve, and sanguine in temperament, but in the rutting season the herd-masters are dangerous. The fallow deer species has been toned down by a hundred generations of park life, and it is very quiet, save when it is to be captured and crated. The axis deer is nervous, flighty, and difficult to handle. The barasingha deer is hysterical and unaccountable. The Indian and Malay sambar deer are lymphatic, confi- dent, tractable and easily handled. Never keep a deer as a "pet" any longer than is necessary to place it in a good home. All "pet deer" are dangerous, and should be confined all the time. Never go into the range or corral of a deer herd unless accompanied by the deer-keeper; and in the rutting season do not go in at all. The only thoroughly safe deer is a dead one; for even does can do mischief. OF WILD ANIMALS i9 A Sample of Nervous Temperament. As an example of temperament in small carnivores, we will cite the coati mundi of South America. It is one of the most nervous and restless animals we know. An individual of sanguine tem- perament rarely is seen. Out of about forty specimens with which we have been well acquainted, I do not recall one that was as quiet and phlegmatic as the raccoon, the nearest relative of Nasua. With a disposition so restless and enter- prising, and with such vigor of body and mind, I count it strange that the genus Nasua has not spread all over our south- eastern states, where it is surely fitted to exist in a state of nature even more successfully than the raccoon or opossum. The temper of the coati mundi is essentially quarrelsome and aggressive. While young, they are reasonably peaceful, but when they reach adult age, they become aggressive, and quarrels are frequent. Separations then are very necessary, and it is rare indeed that more than two adult individuals can be caged together. Even when two only are kept together, quarrels and shrill squealings are frequent. But they seldom hurt each other. The coati is not a treacherous animal, it is not given to lying in wait to make a covert attack from am- bush, and being almost constantly on the move, it is a good show animal. The Strange Combative Temperament of the Gua- naco. In appearance the guanaco is the personification of gentleness. Its placid countenance indicates no guile, nor means of offense. Its lustrous gazelle-like eyes, and its soft, woolly fleece suggest softness of disposition. But in reality no animal is more deceptive. In a wild state amongst its own kind, or in captivity, — no matter how considerately treated, — it is a quarrelsome and at times intractable animal. "A pair of wild guanacos can often be seen or heard engaged in desper- ate combat, biting and tearing, and rolling over one another on the ground, uttering their gurgling, bubbling cries of rage. Of a pair so engaged, I shot one whose tail had then been 20 THE MINDS AND MANNERS bitten off in the encounter. In confinement, the guanaco charges one with his chest, or rears up on his hind legs to strike one with his fore-feet, besides biting and spitting up the con- tents of the stomach." — Richard Crawshay in "The Birds of Terra del Fuego." Mental Traits and Temper of the Atlantic Walrus Mr. Langdon Gibson, of Schenectady, kindly wrote out for me the following highly interesting observations on a remark- able arctic animal with which we are but slightly acquainted: "In the summer of 1891, as a member of the first Peary Expe- dition I had an opportunity of observing some of the traits of the Atlantic walrus. I found him to be a real animal, of huge size, with an extremely disagreeable temper and most belligerently inclined. We hunted them in open whale-boats under the shadows of Green- land's mountain-bound coast, in the Whale Sound region, Lat. 77 degrees North. "We hunted among animals never before molested, except by the Eskimo who (so far as I was able to ascertain) hunt them only during the winter season on the sea ice. We found animals whose courage and belief in themselves and their prowess had hitherto been unshaken by contact with the white man and his ingenious devices of slaughter. "The walrus has a steady nerve and a thoroughly convincing roar. They have fought their kind and the elements for centuries and centuries, and know no fear. This, then, was the animal we sought in order to secure food for our dog teams. I can conceive of no form of big game hunting so conducive to great mental excite- ment and physical activity as walrus hunting from an open whale- boat. At the completion of such a hunt I have seen Eskimo so excited and worked up that they were taken violently sick with vomiting and headache. "The walrus is a gregarious animal, confederating in herds num- bering from ten to fifty, and in some instances no doubt larger numbers may be found together. On calm days they rest in un- molested peace on pans of broken ice which drift up and down the waters of Whale Sound. It is unfortunate that no soundings were taken in the region where the walrus were found, as a knowledge of the depth of water would have furnished some information as to the distances to which the animal will dive in search of food. "The stomachs of all half- and full-grown walrus taken in Whale Sound were without exception well filled with freshly opened clams, OF WILD ANIMALS 21 with very few fragments of shells in evidence; the removal of the clam from the shell being as neatly accomplished as though done by an expert oyster man. "In most cases these segregated herds of walrus were in charge of a large bull who generally occupied a central position in the mass of animals. Upon approaching such a herd for the first time, and when within about 200 feet, a large bull would lift his head, sniff audibly in our direction and give a loud grunt which apparently struck a responsive chord in the other sleeping animals. They would grunt in unison, in more subdued tones, after which the old walrus would drop his head to resume his interrupted nap. Their contempt for us was somewhat disconcerting. "At the first crack of a rifle, however, the animals immediately aroused, and then during the fusillade which followed there occurred what might be called an orderly scramble for the water. In the first place the young ones were hustled to the edge of the ice-pan, and there, apparently under the protection of the mother's flipper, pushed into the water, immediately followed by the mother. The young bulls followed, and I recall no exceptions where the last animal into the water was not the big bull, who before diving would give our boat a wicked look and a roar of rage. "The animals would immediately dive, and then we first became aware of a remarkable phenomenon. We found that when excited they would continue their roaring under water, and these strange sounds coming to us from below added considerably to the excite- ment of the chase. Although the cows and young animals would generally swim to places of safety, the other full grown animals would hover beneath our boat and from time to time come to the surface and charge. These charges were in all cases repulsed by the discharge of our rifles in the faces of the animals. The balls, how- ever, from our .45 calibre carbines would flatten out under the skin on the massive bony structure of the animal's skull, and cause only a sort of rage and a sneeze, but it however had the effect of making them dive again. It is my belief that when enraged the walrus if not resisted would attack and attempt to destroy a boat. Icquah, one of our native hunters, showed me in the deck of his kyak two mended punctures which he told me were made by the tusks of a walrus that had made an unprovoked attack upon him. 