Abstract
THERE is a point in the review of “Animal Language” in NATURE of February 25 on which I should like to comment. The reviewer writes: “At times, Dr. Huxley expresses his views with considerable confidence. ‘What is the point of a rattlesnake's rattling? The answer is really very simple. The snake doesn't want to strike unless it has to. It might very easily get trodden on … The rattle is a warning to the intruder to keep away… In the same sort of way those who install burglar alarms in their houses put up a notice to that effect outside.’ This may be so, but whether it is an established truth or simply an ad hoc hypothesis we are given no real evidence to decide.”
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"Evolution" (Oxford, 1938); and Amer. Nat., 72, 416.
Proc. Eighth Internat. Ornith. Congr., p. 430.
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HUXLEY, J. “Animal Language”. Nature 143, 725 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143725b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143725b0
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