_Erection of the dermal appendages_.—Hardly any expressive movement is
so general as the involuntary erection of the hairs, feathers and other
dermal appendages; for it is common throughout three of the great
vertebrate classes. These appendages are erected under the excitement
of anger or terror; more especially when these emotions are combined,
or quickly succeed each other. The action serves to make the animal
appear larger and more frightful to its enemies or rivals, and is
generally accompanied by various voluntary movements adapted for the
same purpose, and by the utterance of savage sounds. Mr. Bartlett, who
has had such wide experience with animals of all kinds, does not doubt
that this is the case; but it is a different question whether the power
of erection was primarily acquired for this special purpose.
I will first give a considerable body of facts showing how general this
action is with mammals, birds and reptiles; retaining what I have to
say in regard to man for a future chapter. Mr. Sutton, the intelligent
keeper in the Zoological Gardens, carefully observed for me the
Chimpanzee and Orang; and he states that when they are suddenly
frightened, as by a thunderstorm, or when they are made angry, as by
being teased, their hair becomes erect. I saw a chimpanzee who was
alarmed at the sight of a black coalheaver, and the hair rose all over
his body; he made little starts forward as if to attack the man,
without any real intention of doing so, but with the hope, as the
keeper remarked, of frightening him. The Gorilla, when enraged, is
described by Mr. Ford[409] as having his crest of hair “erect and
projecting forward, his nostrils dilated, and his under lip thrown
down; at the same time uttering his characteristic yell, designed, it
would seem, to terrify his antagonists.” I saw the hair on the Anubis
baboon, when angered bristling along the back, from the neck to the
loins, but not on the rump or other parts of the body. I took a stuffed
snake into the monkey-house, and the hair on several of the species
instantly became erect; especially on their tails, as I particularly
noticed with the _Cereopithecus nictitans_. Brehm states[410] that the
_Midas œdipus_ (belonging to the American division) when excited erects
its mane, in order, as he adds, to make itself as frightful as
possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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