Title: How Animals Talk And Other Pleasant Studies of Birds and Beasts.
Author: William J. Long (1867 - 1952).
Year first published: 1919.
Marc Bekoff wrote:
Although the book was published in 1919, it was the most stimulating, inspirational, and prescient book. Its subtitle, And Other Pleasant Studies of Birds and Beasts, is indicative of William J. Long's sheer and unbridled delight in observing and learning about the mysterious ways of the nonhuman animal beings ("animals") with whom we share the Earth. A curious naturalist at heart, Long shows how curiosity, patient observation, and detailed descriptions can help us understand and appreciate animals, vertebrates and invertebrates alike, from wolves to insects, deers to ducks.
Quote:
Many sources have commented on the silent communication abilities of pets, but never before and not since the first publication of this book in 1919 has the subject of animal telepathy in the wild been so fully researched. How Animals Talk explores the phenomenon of vocal, silent, and even motionless communication among animals. From crow talk to instant herd communication, author William J. Long theorizes that animals are much more intelligent, emotional, and moral than we have traditionally thought and that their ability to sense the presence of other living beings is an innate ability shared by humans as well. Based on many years of field observations, this classic text contains numerous examples of animal behavior that defy conventional explanation.
Long believed in the importance and validity of anecdotal evidence. He recognized the dangers of conventional research in reducing animals to mere numbers and how the cold third-person prose of scientific study can objectify animals, distancing "us" from "them." His findings on the impact of our presence on animal life--and the cost that we pay in separating ourselves from animals, who help define our place in the natural world--may be more relevant today than ever before.
How Animals Talk is by far the most interesting books on the lives of animals published before the 1950s. Long applied the much controversial technique of Anthropomorphism to most of the writings in the book, as such, every chapter gives us various amusing and quite lovely "Humanized" points of view of the animals, it's almost as though we're reading a story book with its colourful characters instead of a zoology research paper.
Even though Long, along with other naturalist writers at that time, were considered by John Burroughs and and the president Theodore Roosevelt himself as Nature Fakers for describing animals with excessive anthropomorphism, nevertheless, How Animals Talk is still an enjoyable book not only for fellow naturalists in the field but also for the readers who holds much curiosity in wildlife and wish to know more about it. A highly-recommendable read if you ever get the chance to buy it.
