The Human Side of Animals

Royal Dixon

Informations

• Publié par: arkou
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 28
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Human Side of Animals, by Royal Dixon This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Human Side of Animals Author: Royal Dixon Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19850] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net RECREATION IS AS COMMON AMONG ANIMALS AS IT IS AMONG CHILDREN. THE HUMAN SIDE OF ANIMALS BY ROYAL DIXON AUTHOR OF "THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS," "THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES," "THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS," ETC. WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS AND THIRTY-TWO IN BLACK-AND-WHITE NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1918, by Frederick A. Stokes Company All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages MADE IN U. S. A. TO MARCELLUS E. FOSTER WHO BELIEVED NOTE The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to his fellow-naturalist and friend, Mr. Franklyn Everett Fitch, for carefully reading the entire manuscript and making many scholarly and valuable criticisms and corrections. CONTENTS CHAPTER Foreword I Animals That Practise Camouflage II Animal Musicians III Animals at Play IV Armour-Bearing and Mail-Clad Animals V Miners and Excavators VI Animal Mathematicians PAGE xiii 1 18 32 46 61 88 VII The Language of Animals VIII In Their Boudoirs, Hospitals and Churches IX Self-Defence and Home-Government X Architects, Engineers, and House-Builders XI Food Conservers XII Tourists and Sight-Seers XIII Animal Scavengers and Criminals XIV As the Allies of Man XV The Future Life of Animals 99 120 130 150 170 181 199 210 234 ILLUSTRATIONS Recreation is as common among animals as it is Frontispiece among children (in Colours) 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 clay background 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 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 Cats, unlike dogs, are very fond of music. And it has been proved that their music-sense can be developed to a remarkable degree A happy family of polar bears. The young cubs wrestle and tumble, as playfully as two puppies. This play has much to do with their physical and mental development Dryptosaurus. The prehistoric animals, too, undoubtedly had their play time, with games and "setting up" exercises 6 7 20 21 34 35 The mother opossum is never happier than when she has her little ones playing hide-andseek over her back This young fox came from his home in the woods daily to play with a young fox-terrier. He is now resting after a romp Naosaurus and Dimetrodon, two extinct armourbearers who should have been well able to protect themselves An armour-bearer of prehistoric times whose shield was an effective protection against enemy horns To the polar bear the ice and snow of the Far North means warmth and protection. The mother bear digs herself into a snowbank, where lives quite comfortably throughout the winter The sharp claws of the ground squirrel are efficacious tools in digging his cosy underground burrow The coyote can readily distinguish whether a herd of sheep is guarded by one or more dogs, and will plan his attack accordingly The zebu, the sacred bull of India, in spite of its domestication, has an agile body and a quick, alert mind Roosevelt's Colobus. These horse-tailed monkeys chatter together in a language exclusively their own, yet they seem to have no difficulty in making themselves understood by other monkey-tribes A tamed deer of Texas, whose constant companion and playmate was a rabbit dog. Between the two, there developed, necessarily, a common language Water-loving animals, like the beavers, seemingly take great pride in their toilets. Their fur is always sleek and clean 38 39 50 51 84 85 94 95 112 113 122 Great forest pigs of Central Africa. Like the common domesticated hogs, they will seek a clay bath to heal their wounds The Rocky Mountain goat has many means of defence, not the least of which is his agility in climbing to inaccessible places Wild boars are among the most ferocious of animals. By means of their great strength alone they are well able to defend themselves Brontosaurus. The animals that seemed best equipped to defend themselves are the ones that, thousands of years ago, became extinct This prehistoric monster was equipped not only with a pair of strong horns but with a shield back of them as well The beaver is the greatest of all animal architects. His skill is equalled only by his patience (in Colours) The skunk mother tries to keep on hand a good supply of such delicacies as frogs and toads, so that her young may never go hungry The porcupine and the hedgehog have a unique method of collecting food for their young. After shaking down berries or grapes, they roll in them, then hurry home with the food attached to their quills The black bear is not one of the great migrating animals. The thickness of his coat must therefore change with the seasons Rabbits seem to have a well-devised system in their road-building, running their paths in and out of underbrush in a truly ingenious manner The mongoose, a scavenger of the worst type, feeding on rats and mice and snakes, and even poultry 123 134 135 144 145 158 172 173 188 189 202 Diplodocus. The prehistoric animals, also, undoubtedly had their scavengers and criminals The Esquimo-dog is man's greatest friend in the Far North Chipmunks are among the most easily tamed of man's wild friends, and they even seem fond of human companionship Men cruelly take the lives of these denizens of the wildwood, rejoicing in their slaughter, but the animal soul they cannot kill Two pals. There is between man and dog a kinship of spirit that cannot be denied 203 218 219 244 245 FOREWORD "And in the lion or the frog— In all the life of moor or fen— In ass and peacock, stork and dog, He read similitudes of men." More and more science is being taught in a new way. More and more men are beginning to discard the lumber of the brain's workshop to get at real facts, real conclusions. Laboratories, experiments, tables, classifications are all very vital and all very necessary but sometimes their net result is only to befog and confuse. Occasionally it becomes important for us to cast aside all dogmatic restraints and approach the wonders of life from a new angle and with the untrammelled spirit of a little child. In this book I have attempted to bring together many old and new observations which tend to show the human-like qualities of animals. The treatment is neither formal nor scholastic, in fact I do not always remain within the logical confines of the title. My sole purpose is to make the reader self-active, observative, free from hide-bound prejudice, and reborn as a participant in the wonderful experiences of life which fill the universe. I hope to lead him into a new wonderland of truth, beauty and love, a land where his heart as well as his eyes will be opened. In attempting to understand the animals I have used a method a great deal like that of the village boy, who when questioned as to how he located the stray horse for which a reward of twenty dollars had been offered, replied, "I just thought what I would do if I were a horse and where I would go—and there I went and found him." In some such way I have tried to think why animals do certain things, I have studied them in many places and under all conditions, and those acts of theirs which, if performed by children, would come under the head of wisdom and intelligence, I have classified as such. Life is one throughout. The love that fills a mother's heart when she sees her first-born babe, is also felt by the mother bear, only in a different way, when she sees her baby cubs playing before her humble cave dwelling. The sorrow that is felt by the human heart when a beloved one dies is experienced in only a little less degree by an African ape when his mate is shot dead by a Christian missionary. The grandmother sheep that watches her numerous little lamb grandchildren on the hillside, while their mothers are away grazing, is just as mindful of their care as any human grandparent could be. One drop of water is like the ocean; and love is love. The trouble with science is that too often it leaves out love. If you agree that we cannot treat men like machines, why should we put animals in that class? Why should we fall into the colossal ignorance and conceit of cataloging every human-like action of animals under the word "instinct"? Man delights in thinking of himself as only a little lower than the angels. Then why should he not consider the animals as only a little lower than himself? The poet has truly said that "the beast is the mirror of man as man is the mirror of God." Man had to battle with animals for untold ages before he domesticated and made servants of them. He is just beginning to learn that they were not created solely to furnish material for sermons, nor to serve mankind, but that they also have an existence, a life of their own. Man has long preached this doctrine that he is not an animal, but a kinsman of the gods. For this reason, he has claimed dominion over animal creation and a right to assert that dominion without restraint. This anthropocentric conceit is the same thing that causes one nation to think it should rule the world, that the sun and moon were made only f