Charles Kellogg of California, who, if not a nature-faker, is one of the most remarkable human beings of all time, arrived at Cambridge, Mass., recently from Paris to confer with Professors from Harvard’s department of science, confident that he could convince them of his ability to converse with animals. Mr. Kellogg has Just returned from Europe, where he gave demonstrations of his unique power before professors of the universities of Parts and Berlin. According to Mr. Kellogg, he has accomplished in reality during a life spent in the wilds of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California what the genius of Kipling makes Mowgli accomplish during a childhood passed in the tropical Jungles, but Kellogg has for friends only the animals of the temperate American west. He knows not the languages of the tropical monkey, though he has often talked “bear” with the grizzlies of the Sierra Nevadas. Crickets, squirrels, lizards and rattlesnakes are some of the other animals whose languages Mr. Kellogg speaks fluently. Says Mr. Kellogg:
    It was by years of constant observation and associating of sounds with actions that I mastered the animal languages I am familiar with. I began on domestic chickens and gradually extended my study to include such wild animals and reptiles as the bear, the lizard and the rattlesnake. Using a system of hieroglyphics modeled upon the modern Chinese system. I have compiled a dictionary of the language of the ordinary brown or hearth cricket, which has the most highly developed language of any of the animals I am familiar with, though I have reason to suspect the monkeys are superior in this respect. From my dictionary I find there are 27 elemental words or sounds, and 65 other words made up of various combinations of the original 27, a cumulative system not unlike that of the Germans. The number of words or sounds in other animal languages I am familiar with varies from 12 to 95.”
    Although Mr. Kellogg admits that his ability to interpret the enunciations of animals is the result of long and arduous study, he insists that his ability to make himself understood, to imitate the sounds of these animals, is God-given. He says he can without the least difficulty reproduce any sound that comes from an animal’s throat. He has a peculiarly constructed palate, no tonsils, and the cord connecting the teeth with the lower lip is entirely missing, but he has been assured by the most noted specialist that there is nothing abnormal about his throat and vocal cords. They are at a loss to account for his strange gift.

From—The St. Mary Banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.), 02 Dec. 1911. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.