THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS By animal language we understand not only the various produc tions of sound but we must also include in the conception all those movements and modes of behaviour by which animals influence their fellows from a lesser or greater distance away. Hence, animal language may consist of sound language or of sign and gesture language. Naturally we find animal language devel oped principally where the conditions of life are such that animals are in close relationship with their fellows. This is more particular ly so in the mutual quest of the opposite sexes for one another for the purpose of pairing. Since it is usually the males which are the active partners in seeking out the females or in enticing them to come to them, they are possessed of the most expressive speech, or it may even be the males alone that have the power of speech. Of insects the males alone are capable of sound-production. For the enticement of the opposite sex the language of gestures plays at least as great a part as that of speech. Frequently certain bodily positions serve as signals. The calls and warning notes of parent animals have a great importance, particularly of mother animals that keep their young with them for a time. But such calls are always found, in addition, where animals live in close contact with one another, when they possess a social life as a family or a herd. Finally, a kind of battle language is to be observed in animals, both in the form of expressions on the part of the attacker and on that of the attacked. Naturally the necessary conditions for the development of such a language are only present where not only the animal expressing itself is capable of producing the requisite sounds or signs, but where also the other individual is equally capable of receiving and interpreting the signs produced. A sound language, for example, can only exist when the individuals for which it is of import possess ears. Consequently, every observed production of sound or noise, every apparent gesture, must not immediately be interpreted as a form of language.
In one respect all animal languages are fundamentally different, from human language. Whilst we speak or make gestures to ex plain our thoughts or wishes to others, in the language of animals something far more primitive is concerned. For there is never any
conscious intention involved. It is never anything but the instinc tive expression of a definite physiological condition, under certain circumstances also of a particular sensation. Nor is the second animal, to which the first addresses itself, ever capable of giving a definite meaning to the sign or sound emanating from its com panion, nor of understanding it as a conscious message. An utter ance in the language of animals means nothing more than a certain stimulus, sign or signal, the reception of which is answered by certain reactions. It is true that in this way animal speech to a certain extent attains the meaning of a communication. And this is all the more so since once more we can observe here how a purposeful adaptation co-operates. Normally the language signs are answered correctly, that is purposefully, in accordance with their meanings. Further, the words or definite sounds used even by the highest animals refer always to their feelings, and never designate objects.