The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals

nd emotions of the lowest men parallel and dove-tail with those of the highest quadrupeds and birds, w

ious and cruel nature, many a man is totally unfitted to own, or even to associate with, dogs, horses and monkeys. Many persons are born into the belief that every man is necessarily a "lord of creation," and that all animals per se are m

was encased in a heavy woolen straight-jacket, and there was a strap around its loins to which a stout cord was attached, running to the Root of All Evil. The pavement was hot, but there with its bare and tender feet on the hot concrete, the sad-eyed little waif painfully moved about, peering far up into the

,-because "it pleases the children!" The use of monkeys with hand-organs is a cruel outrage upon the monkey trib

el between those two groups, there are no single factors more valuable than the home, and the family food supply. These hark back to the most primitive instincts of the ver

referring to the warm-blooded vertebrates, and not merely the apes

iole is to me an even greater wonder than it was when I first saw one over sixty years ago. Even today the mechanical skill involved in its construction is beyond my comprehension. My dull brain can not figure out the processes by which the bird begins to weave its hangi

t you will note that it is very strong, and thoroughly durable. It can st

ys, or in three, weave of those same materials a nest like that, that would function as did the original? I doubt it. The materials consist of long strips of the thin inner bark of trees, short strings, and tiny grass stems that are lo

(pronounced cay-seek'), which as a nest-builder far surpasses our oriole. Often the cacique's hanging nest is from four to s

t its lower end, entered by a narrow perpendicular slit a foot or so above the terminal facilities. It is impossible to achieve one of these nests without either shooting off the limb to

ption: HANGING NEST O

merican Natu

aption: GREAT HANGIN

he delta of the Orin

em supplied with raffia grass, and they do the rest. Fortunately for us, they weave nests for fun, and work at it all the year round! Millions of visitors have watched them doing it. To facilitate their work the upper half of their cage is judiciously supplied

of house-building intelligence among birds. It is the community house of the little sociable weaver-bird of South Africa (Philetoerus socius). Having missed seeing the work of this species save in museums, I will quote from the Royal Natural History, written by the late Dr. Richard Lydekker, an excellent description: -This species congregates in large flocks, many pairs incubating their egg

e initiated eye is constantly being deceived by these dome-topped structures, since at a distance

representative of the wonderful mental ability and mechanical skill so common in the ranks of th

e and barbaric tribes are usually the direct result of their own mental and moral deficiencies. The Eskimo is an exception, because his home and its location are dictated by the hard and fierce circumstances which dictate to him what he must do. Often

ght have been rich and prosperous agriculturists or herdsmen had they d

rait of Magellan. That region is treeless, rocky, windswept, cold and inhospitable. I can not imagine a place better fitted for an anarchist penal c

y represents the lowest rung of the human ladder. Beside them the cave men of 30,000 years ago were kings and princes. Their only rivals seem to be the Poonans

ough slabs tied together and caulked with moss,-and rough bone- pointed spears, bows, arrows and paddles. Their only clothing consists of skins of the guanacos loosely hung from the neck, and

oo dull and low to maintain themselves on a continuing basis. Their hundred years of contact with man has taught them

rth rate is so low that within recent times the tribe h

led to call chimpanzees, elephants, bears and dogs "lower animals?"

the human race; and we hold that the highest ani

e. Their house was not wholly bad, but it might have been 100 per cent better. It was merely a platform of small poles, placed like a glorified bird's nest in the spreading forks of a many-branched tree, about twenty feet from the ground. The main supports were bark-lashed to the large branches of the family tree. Over this there was a rude roof of long

l Bock, build no houses of any kind, not even huts of green branches; and their only overture toward the promotion of personal comfort in the home is a five-foot grass mat sp

maller game, their clothes consist of bark cloth, around the loins only

own as the Veddahs, could count no more than five, that they could not comprehen

I should say that those bird homes yield to their makers more comfort and protection, and a better birth-rate, than are yielded by the homes of those ignorant, unambitious and retrogressive tribes of men now living and thinking, and supposed to be possessed of reasoning powers. If the whole truth could be known, I belie

wild animals and savages. For example, among the men of our time it is a common mistake to build in the wrong place, to build entirely too large or

is urged to read in the Scientific Monthly for January, 1922, an article by Professor L. M. Tennan entitled "Adventures in Stupidity.-A Partial Analysis of the Intelle