Let us now consider examples of the instincts of self-preservation,
subsistence, migration, and the continuation of the species. Most
animals know their natural enemies prior to experience of any hostile
designs upon themselves. A flight of young pigeons, even though they
have no old birds with them, will become shy, and will separate from one
another on the approach of a bird of prey. Horses and cattle that come
from countries where there are no lions become unquiet and display alarm
as soon as they are aware that a lion is approaching them in the night.
Horses going along a bridle-path that used to leave the town at the back
of the old dens of the carnivora in the Berlin Zoological Gardens were
often terrified by the propinquity of enemies who were entirely unknown
to them. Sticklebacks will swim composedly among a number of voracious
pike, knowing, as they do, that the pike will not touch them. For if a
pike once by mistake swallows a stickleback, the stickleback will stick
in its throat by reason of the spine it carries upon its back, and the
pike must starve to death without being able to transmit his painful
experience to his descendants. In some countries there are people who by
choice eat dog’s flesh; dogs are invariably savage in the presence of
these persons, as recognising in them enemies at whose hands they may one
day come to harm. This is the more wonderful inasmuch as dog’s fat
applied externally (as when rubbed upon boots) attracts dogs by its
smell. Grant saw a young chimpanzee throw itself into convulsions of
terror at the sight of a large snake; and even among ourselves a Gretchen
can often detect a Mephistopheles. An insect of the genius _bombyx_ will
seize another of the genus _parnopæa_, and kill it wherever it finds it,
without making any subsequent use of the body; but we know that the
last-named insect lies in wait for the eggs of the first, and is
therefore the natural enemy of its race. The phenomenon known to
stockdrivers and shepherds as “das Biesen des Viehes” affords another
example. For when a “dassel” or “bies” fly draws near the herd, the
cattle become unmanageable and run about among one another as though they
were mad, knowing, as they do, that the larvæ from the eggs which the fly
will lay upon them will presently pierce their hides and occasion them
painful sores. These “dassel” flies—which have no sting—closely resemble
another kind of gadfly which has a sting. Nevertheless, this last kind
is little feared by cattle, while the first is so to an inordinate
extent. The laying of the eggs upon the skin is at the time quite
painless, and no ill consequences follow until long afterwards, so that
we cannot suppose the cattle to draw a conscious inference concerning the
connection that exists between the two. I have already spoken of the
foresight shown by ferrets and buzzards in respect of adders; in like
manner a young honey-buzzard, on being shown a wasp for the first time,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account