The Universal KinshipMoore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Philosophy
The Universal Kinship
Moore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Evolution; Human beings; Sociology
Nearly all animals, from mollusks to men, reason—not once or twice
in a lifetime, but the most of them every day and every hour of
their existence. In fact, it would be impossible for any animal
addicted to moving about, and with a delicate and easily wrecked
organism, to long survive in a world like this without that
elasticity of action which reason alone can impart. Since they live
in the same world-conditions as human beings, and are seeking
providence for substantially the same wants, non-human beings
manifest reason in the same general directions as human beings
do—in the location and construction of their homes and fortresses,
in the arrest of their prey, in circumventing their enemies, in
overcoming obstacles and surmounting dangers, in protecting and
educating their young, in meeting the emergencies of food and
climate, in the wooing of mates and the waging of wars, and in the
thousand other cases where they are called upon in their daily
wanderings and doings to deal with novel and unprecedented
situations.
When wild geese are feeding there is said to be always one of them
that acts as sentinel. This one never takes a grain of corn while on
duty. When it has acted awhile it gives the bird next to it a sharp
peck and utters a querulous kind of cry, and the second one takes
its turn. This is prudence, or forethought, which is a form of
reason. When swans are diving there is generally one that stays
above the water and watches. Sentinels have alarm sounds of various
kinds, which they give to signify ‘enemy.’ ‘Ibex, marmots, and
mountain-sheep whistle; prariedogs bark; elephants trumpet; wild
geese and swans have a kind of bugle call; rabbits and sheep stamp
on the ground; crows caw: and wild ducks utter a low, warning
quack.’
In the _Popular Science Monthly_ for March, 1901, is an account of a
series of experiments on the intelligence of the turtle made by
Professor Yerkes, of Harvard. The turtle was placed in a labyrinth,
at the farther end of which was a comfortable bed of sand. It took
just thirty-five minutes of wandering for the turtle to reach the
nest the first time. But in the second trial the nest was reached in
fifteen minutes, and by the tenth trip the turtle was familiar
enough with the route to go through in three and one-half minutes,
making but two mistakes. The turtle was afterwards placed in a more
complex labyrinth, containing, among other features, a blind alley
and two inclines. The inclines were puzzles, and it took one hour
and thirty-five minutes of aimless rambling for the wanderer to
reach its nest the first time. But the fifth trip was made in
sixteen minutes, and the tenth in four minutes, which was not far
from direct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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