When male
animals utter sounds in order to please the females, they would
naturally employ those which are sweet to the ears of the species;
and it appears that the same sounds are often pleasing to widely
different animals, owing to the similarity of their nervous systems,
as we ourselves perceive in the singing of birds and even
in the chirping of certain tree-frogs giving us pleasure.
On the other hand, sounds produced in order to strike terror
into an enemy, would naturally be harsh or displeasing.
Whether the principle of antithesis has come into play
with sounds, as might perhaps have been expected, is doubtful.
The interrupted, laughing or tittering sounds made by man and by
various kinds of monkeys when pleased, are as different as possible
from the prolonged screams of these animals when distressed.
The deep grunt of satisfaction uttered by a pig, when pleased with
its food, is widely different from its harsh scream of pain or terror.
But with the dog, as lately remarked, the bark of anger and that of
joy are sounds which by no means stand in opposition to each other;
and so it is in some other cases.
There is another obscure point, namely, whether the sounds which are
produced under various states of the mind determine the shape of the mouth,
or whether its shape is not determined by independent causes, and the sound
thus modified.
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