ANIMAL MORALS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1434, 8 May 1912, Page 8

ANIMAL MORALS.

CODE OF COMMANDMENTS. Mr. Ernest Thompson Setcn, the well* known naturalist, in an address to the Pilgrinis at the Savoy Hotel, Loudon, hist month, gave stories of the morals of animals to show that the Ten Commandments wera fundamental iaws for all creation. lie looked for evidence that, (lie animals had nnv recogmtioa of property rights, and 110 ono who had studied them could deny that they had. A squirrel had his tree, in which he had a proprietary right; he would always be ready to light for that tree ami what was 011 it. A tuna from Alaska had a troupe of trained dogs which were three-parts wolf. Among them was a big one, a'sort of a bully, and all the others wore afrnid of him. As an experiment he fed a small dog one day wuli jill it could cat and then throw.it a Ins bone. That was too good to lose, ami tlio little dog, remembering that hard times were ahead, removed the bone to a swamp and interred it in a hole under/a tree. It then went away about iitty yards and lay Vfterwards the big wolf camo along and c,licit about. The small dog watched him keenly until the big one went so ciose to where the bone was that there could no longer bo any doubt as to his ln The small doz then rushed out and -sisai lcd'at tho big one, which looked at; the littlo one as if to say, S bone 5 " and walked away, what bracea up tliat littlo dog to aiako tho stand lifts the instinct of property. , It was ail instinct which was in all the dog tribe. The fox womd bury (tucks' eggs in the summer time and 8° Io J them in tho winter. The ems time had undergone a good dea oiJuago —(laughter)—but he wanted tho *gb& w badly (hut ho ate them. Ths Widowed Fox. One of the most remarkablo theories in animal studios was what might, be called the evolution of monogamy. If it came to a citvsh between apolygamist nmma 1 ai.d a monoramist animal* tne tottpi ahta>6 won. The young of the monogamist au,mnl hf>d two adults to I )r " locl .. thc ' m; ,''-_ polygamic only one, and 1 h? t " fV t The animal par excellence w .lah h Jti II a monogamist theory m tho highest W,n was tho grey wolf. . Tho blue foxes in a certain territory m Alaska understood among themsc yes at their area was, and beyond that they would scarcely (to They also weie absolutely mouosamist. li one tox uica 11 was extremely hard to get the other to mate. So strict had tho lines been on which these foxes lived, that tno hunter /cported to the Senate: "L'ntU we can Break down tho high moral standard oi the foxes our profits will bo greatly curtailed." (Laughter.) If a rooll was to find a stick in tho woods, that stick was his own and he car. tiad it to his nest. If a rook attempted to tako that stick from him lie wonU. light for his properly, am) the question o* tao ownership ol the stick had been known .0 disturb tlio harmony of a whole rookerj. Mercy of a Higher Power, Mr. Seton gave instances of a hare hunted bv a weasel and of a moose hunied by a dog, which sought the protection oi man. There was in the annua. m w a. deep laid instinct, strong in proporiio.i us the animal was high, in, the scale, which nrompted it, when 111 dire e.itrcmiito*iling itself on the mercy 01 sonyi other newer. He did not tnj tli.U it was so, but it might be (hot in t.ns m.yinet (hcv would find the loumiatioiis and .ho Wis on which-was at forwardsbuilt something else which-found its higher tiovolopmenfc in man. ho:nv a,ui '''Mr.'Patrick Murphy, commenting on Mr Scion's reference to monogamy, was r-Mi'inder! of the little boy who, when asked for a definition of monotony, said: "Monotony is living with 0110 wiie. (Loud laughter.}