GRAPES PREFERRED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 18, 5 February 1937, Page 15

GRAPES PREFERRED

Uwn Corresponaent.)

Instinctive Choice of Child and Monkey NUTS iGNORED

. (By Air Mail —

« nuiNuuxs, dan. 4. I Monkeys don't like nuts ; grapea, , bananas and apples (in that order) are their iavourite foods, finda Professor Katz, German psychologist, who is visiting iiondon's Zoo. I watched him c.onduct an esperiment with eome chimps. Seven kinds of food wero set before them. They ate the foods in the following order; Urapes, banana, appls, canot, lettuoe. bread, nuts. x Said the • Professor: "It is almost invariabiy the same- order of aelection. l 'fhe monkey does not care for nuts. "I have conducted the same experiment with children aged three. They choose the foods in the same order nearty always. "This proves that there are certain deeply-rooted likes and dislikes connected with what the body needs most. "Certain children have an instinct against eating certain foods. For parents to force thein to eat such foods against their natural inclination ia wrong." Animals Talk. Professor Katz and his wife, I>r. Rosa Katz, go to the Zoo every day to study the psychology of animals and to iind parailela with human behaviour. They are probing the secrets of aniinal lruguage, the capacity of animals to perform certain feats, the coiour sense of animals. "I am trying to asoertain how far animals and birds are capable of produoing human words," tho Professor toid me. There have been eeveral known casea bf dogs imitating one or two simple human words. An American psychologist records the case of a monkey speaking oue or two words. "It might be possible to make cows talk. Kveryone knows • about the Bpeech ability of parrots, but less has been heard about various birds trying to imitate the crios oi. other birds, and even the sounda of trains and motor cara.,} Htns Sea in Poi, Hens have a fine colour sense according to the Professor, They like yellowish coloura, but do not cafe much for green or blue. The hen and many other birds have yellowish oil-drops over the retina of their eyes, This enables them to see quite clearly in fog.