76 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



months old, who, loudly calling for aid, climbed on a 

 block of rock and was surrounded. Now one of the 

 largest males, a true hero, came down again from the 

 mountain, slowly went to the young one, coaxed him, 

 and triumphantly led him away — the dogs being too 

 much astonished to make an attack. I cannot resist 

 giving another scene which was witnessed by this same 

 naturalist ; an eagle seized a young Cercopithecus, 

 which, by clinging to a branch, was not at once carried 

 off; it cried loudly for assistance, upon which the other 

 membeis of the troop with much uproar rushed to the 

 rescue, surrounded the eagle, and pulled out so many 

 feathers, that he no longer thought of his prey, but only 

 how to escape. This eagle, as Brehm remarks, assuredly 

 would never again attack a monkey in a troop. 



It is certain that associated animals have a feeling of 

 love for each other which is not felt by adult and non- 

 social animals. How far in most cases they actually 

 sympathise with each other's pains and pleasures is 

 more doubtful, especially with respect to the latter. 

 Mr. Buxton, however, who had excellent means of 

 observation, 9 states that his macaws, which lived free in 

 Norfolk, took "an extravagant interest" in a pair 

 with a nest, and whenever the female left it, she was 

 surrounded by a troop " screaming horrible accla- 

 " mations in her honour." It is often difficult to judge 

 whether animals have any feeling for each other's 

 sufferings. Who can say what cows fee], when they 

 surround and stare intently on a dying or dead 

 companion? That animals sometimes are far from 

 feeling any sympathy is too certain ; for they will expel 

 a wounded animal from the herd, or gore or worry 

 it to death. This is almost the blackest fact in natural 



9 « Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' Novcml er, 1868, p. 382. 



