The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal BehaviorYerkes, Robert Mearns
Science
The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal Behavior
Yerkes, Robert Mearns
Animal behavior; Dancing mice
As I shall hope to make clear in a subsequent discussion of the dancer's
peculiarities of behavior, in a chapter on individual differences, there
is no sufficient reason for doubting the general truth of Cyon's
description, although there is abundant evidence of his inaccuracy in
details. If, for the present, we accept without further evidence the
statement that there is more than one variety of dancer, we shall be able
to account for many of the apparent inaccuracies of description which are
to be found in the literature on the animal.
As a result of the examination of the facts which this chapter presents we
have discovered at least six important peculiarities of behavior of the
dancer which demand an explanation in terms of structure. These are: (1)
the dance movements--whirling, circling, figure-eights, zigzags; (2)
restlessness and the quick, jerky movements of the head; (3) lack of
responsiveness to sounds; (4) more or less pronounced deficiency in
orientational and equilibrational power; (5) lack of visual dizziness; (6)
lack of rotational dizziness.
Naturally enough, biologists from the first appearance of the dancing
mouse in Europe have been deeply interested in what we usually speak of as
the causes of these peculiarities of behavior. As a result, the structure
of those portions of the body which are supposed to have to do with the
control of movement, with the phenomena of dizziness, and with the ability
to respond to sounds, have been studied thoroughly. In the next chapter we
shall examine such facts of structure as have been discovered and attempt
to correlate them with the facts of behavior.
CHAPTER V
STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES AND BEHAVIOR
The activities of an animal are expressions of changes which occur in its
structure, and they can be explained satisfactorily only when the facts of
structure are known. Such peculiarities of activity as are exhibited by
the dancing mouse, as contrasted with the common mouse, suggest at once
that this creature has a body which differs in important respects from
that of the ordinary mouse. In this chapter I shall present what is known
concerning the structural bases for the whirling, the lack of
equilibrational ability and of dizziness, the quick jerky head movements,
the restlessness, and the partial or total deafness of the dancing mouse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account