Man is the only animal that makes tools to use. God has given him a mind that can contrive tools, and he has also given him hands by which he can use them. But he has given no such mind to other animals, and therefore he has not given them hands. They do not know enough to make tools, and so hands are not needed by them.
Animals have some kinds of tools ready made.
But, though other animals do not make tools, they have tools which they use. God has given them ready made, as we may say, such tools as they need. Let us look, then, at some of the tools that we find in different animals.
The tail of a fish a sculling-oar.
You see a man in the stern or hinder end of a small boat. He is sculling, as it is called. He is making the boat go by working the oar to the one side and the other. The oar is the tool or instrument by which he does it. Now a fish has an instrument like this, by which he goes through the water. His tail is like the sculling-oar that man has contrived, and which he uses with his hands. If you watch the fish as he goes through the water, you will see that he moves it to one side and the other as the man does his oar; and while he goes ahead by means of his tail, he uses his fins mostly as balancers to guide his motion. He moves them rather gently except when he wants to change his course quickly. When he is moving along fast, and wants to stop, he makes his fins stand out straight on each side. This is just as rowers in a boat use their oars when they want to stop the boat.
You see a man drilling a hole in a rock, and you hear the sound of the tool as it goes click, click, all the while. The woodpecker has a drill that works in the same way. With his bill he drills holes in the trees, and you hear the sound of his tool as you do that of the tool of the rock-blaster. It is a sort of knocking sound repeated many times very quickly.
The drill of the woodpecker.
What do you think that the woodpecker drills holes for? It is to get at worms and insects, which he eats. These are in the bark and wood of dead trunks and branches of trees. The woodpecker knows this, and so drills to find them. He does not drill into live bark and wood, for he knows that there are generally no worms or insects there.
But the woodpecker’s instrument is something more than a drill. It is a drill with another instrument inside of it. This instrument is for pulling out the insect or worm that he finds in drilling. It is shown in the following figure. It is a very long, straight tongue, and ends in a bony thorn. This is, as you see, armed with sharp teeth pointing backward, like the barbs of a fish-hook. Here are, then, two instruments or tools together. And the way that the woodpecker manages them is this: while he is drilling, the two parts of the bill are closed together, making a good wedge-pointed drill, and at the same time a snug case for the insect-catcher. As soon as he comes to an insect he opens the drill, and pushes the barbed end of his long tongue into the insect, and draws him into his mouth.