WHISTLING TO THE TIGER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19840, 14 May 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

WHISTLING TO THE TIGER

Professor Darling, lecturing to children at the Society of Arts, London, blew for them a whistle which would, he said, afford much fun with a tiger. Before the authorities at the Zoo take any action it will be well to mention that, though Professor Darling’s whistle will make a tiger sit up and take notice, it has not such an irritating effect on him as a motor-horn. It merely makes a pleasant sound which the tiger can hear wh«n the Blower cannot hear anything. Its peculiarity, as explained by Professor Darling, is that the sound it makes is too shrill for human beings to hear. Animals, including the tiger, as well as cats and all the other members of the tiger family, can hear these very shrill sounds. What peculiarity it is in their ears which makes them able to do so even Professor Darling could not say, but it is remarkable that children can hear shriller notes than their elders. Professor Darling, to illustrate, this, blew one kind of whistle, and all the audience, old and young, could hear the sound. He then chose a whistle with a. higher note (which is to say that it causdd more vibrations of the air to the second), and the older people could not hear it. The next whistle he blew he could not himself hear, but the children could. Finally the sounds became so shrill, the vibrations so numerous that nobody could hear them. But if the tiger had been there it would hav pricked up his ears, for the sound would still have been within his range.