The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal ObservationsHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Science
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal Observations
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Animal behavior
The sound uttered was a deep-voiced roar,--not a grunt,--rising
and falling in measured cadence, and prolonged about four or five
seconds. It was totally different from the ordinary grunt of
hunger, or the menace of an angry buffalo, which is short and
sharp. In discussing the quality of the bellow, we agreed that it
could properly be called a low roar. It is heard only in the
rutting season,--the period described by Catlin,--and there is
good reason to believe that Caitlin's description is perfectly
correct.
The Scream of the Puma. This is a subject that will not lie still.
I presume it will recur every five years as long as pumas endure.
Uncountable pages of controversial letters have been expended upon
the question: "Does the puma ever scream, like a woman in
distress?"
The true answer is easy, and uncontestable by people whose minds
are open to the rules of evidence.
Yes; the adult female puma DOES scream,-_in the mating
season_, whenever it comes. It is loud, piercing, prolonged,
and has the agonized voice qualities of a boy or a woman screaming
from the pain of a surgical operation. To one who does not know
the source or the cause, it is nerve-racking. When heard in a
remote wilderness it must be truly fearsome. It says "Ow-w-w-w!"
over and over. We have heard it a hundred times or more, and it
easily carries a quarter of a mile.
The language of animals is a long and interesting subject,--so
much so that here it is possible only to sketch out and suggest
its foundations and scope. On birds alone, an entire volume should
be written; but animal intelligence is a subject as far reaching
as the winds of the earth.
No man who ever saw high in the heavens a V-shaped flock of wild
geese, or heard the honk language either afloat, ashore or in the
air, will deny the spoken language of that species. If any one
should do so, let him listen to the wild-goose wonder tales of
Jack Miner, and hear him imitate (to perfection) the honk call of
the gander at his pond, calling to wild flocks in the sky and
telling them about the corn and safety down where he is.
The woodpecker drums on the high and dry limb of a dead tree his
resounding signal-call that is nothing more nor less (in our view)
than so much sign language.
It was many years ago that we first heard in the welcome days of
early spring the resounding _"Boo-hoo-hoo"_ courting call of
the cock pinnated grouse, rolling over the moist earth for a mile
or more in words too plain to be misunderstood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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