Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1880 — Laying Back the Ears. [ARTICLE]

Laying Back the Ears.

The expressive gestures which many animals make with their ears are matters of familiar observation. Nothing is-more significant than the drawing back and pressure of the ears to the head, •vshioh indicates a savage frame of mind. Mi. Darwin, in his recent work on the mpans of expression in men and animals, gives an ingenious explanation of this movement. Ho observes that it is only found in the species which fight with their teeth. All the carnivora do this, and all, so far as he has observed, draw back their ears when feeliDg savage. This may be continually seen with dogs fighting in earnest, or perhaps fighting in play. Cats, tigers, leopards and lynxes show the same peculiarity. It is very noticeable in horses, and the vicious expression it gives them is unmistakable. But cattle, sheep or goats, though they fight, never use their teeth in fighting, and never draw back their ears when enraged. The elephant, which fights with its tusks, does not retract its ears, but, on the contrary, erects them when rushing at an enemy. The connection between biting as a means of warfare and laying back the ears as a sign of anger is so uniform, and the exceptions are so few, that Mr. Darwin’s explanation of the origin of the habit is highly probable. He says animals which fight in this way try to bite each other’s ears, and, reversely, being conscious that the ear is a weak point of attack, lay it back upon the head to keep it out of the way. This habit, being deepened into an instinct through many generations, has become so associated with the feeling attendant upon warfare that the ‘ ears are depressed even by an amount of anger too slight to find any other expression. The opposite movement of pricking the ears forward to express attention is so natural as to need no special explanation. It is generally accompanied by an elevation and turning of the head