i8 4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



to fly. Hudson states in his most interesting " Naturalist on the La 

 Plata " that the common partridge of the pampas, when captured, 

 " after a few violent struggles to escape drops its head, gasps two or 

 three times, and to all appearances dies. If, when you have seen this, 

 you release your hold, the eyes open instantly, and with startling sud- 

 denness and noise of wings, it is up and away and beyond your reach 

 forever." 



In mammals the instinct is so well shown in one of the lower mem- 

 bers of the group, the opossum, that the expression " playing possum " 

 is familiar to every one. Foxes when trapped or hard pressed often 

 drop down limp and apparently lifeless and will even endure a good 

 deal of maltreatment without making any response. Hudson records 

 that he was " once riding with a gaucho when we saw, on the open 

 level ground before us, a fox not yet fully grown standing still and 

 watching our approach. All at once it dropped, and when we came 

 up to the spot it was lying stretched out, with eyes closed, and appar- 

 ently dead. Before passing on my companion, who said it was not the 

 first time he had seen such a thing, lashed it vigorously with his whip 

 for some moments, but without producing the slightest effect." 



Mr. Morgan in his book on the beaver gives the following instance 

 on what he assures us is excellent authority : " A fox one night entered 

 the hen-house of a farmer, and after destroying a large number of 

 fowls, gorged himself to such repletion that he could not pass out 

 through the small aperture by which he had entered. The proprietor 

 found him in the morning sprawled out upon the floor apparently dead 

 from surfeit; and taking him up by the legs carried him out unsus- 

 pectingly, and for some distance to the side of his house, where he 

 dropped him upon the grass. No sooner did Reynard find himself 

 free than he sprang to his feet and made his escape." Dogs ait fre- 

 quently deceived by this ruse of the fox and doubtless foxes have many 

 times owed their lives to its aid. It has been often noticed that if one 

 withdraws from a fox when it is feigning it may be seen to slowly open 

 its eyes, then raise its head and carefully look around to see if its foes 

 are at a safe distance, and finally scamper off. 



While in insects the instinct of feigning death is probably a simple 

 reflex reaction to outer stimuli, it is doubtless associated in birds and 

 especially mammals with a tolerably acute consciousness of the situa- 

 tion. It involves a more or less deliberate intention to profit by the 

 deception, yet at the same time it is probably not a result of conscious 

 reflection. The instinct is there, or else such a course of action would 

 not occur to the animal's mind. Were it otherwise it would be dif- 

 ficult to understand why the ruse is adopted only by certain species 

 while many others, equally intelligent and for whom it would be an 

 equally advantageous stratagem never manifest it. There can be little 

 doubt that a fox which slowly opens its eye and warily looks around is 



