This, I have no doubt, is in great measure, if not entirely, automatic,
for like as when you tread on a man’s toe, or give him a thump on the
back, he involuntarily cries out—Oh! So when you tread on a cat’s tail,
she gives utterance to her characteristic scream.
But it is not only bodily pain that can be proclaimed aloud, but
hosts of other sensations can also be expressed in various ways. The
lamb, or the kitten, feels the sensation of hunger, and it doubtless
involuntarily bleats, or mews, for its mother; although it does not in
the least know the meaning of “Ba,” or “Mew,” or why it gives utterance
to such sounds.
And so of the notes of the crowing cock, the “gobbling” turkey, and the
sibilant cricket, etc.
And then as to numbers of other cries, etc., too numerous to mention;
such as the chirping of sparrows on the approach of rain, the moaning
and whining of animals in pain, the cackling of the hen after laying an
egg, etc.,—all these arise doubtless from bodily sensations, and may be
termed the language of the involuntary or automatic part of the organic
mind.