Chap. III. MORAL SENSE. 77 



history, unless indeed the explanation which has been 

 suggested is true, that their instinct or reason leads them 

 to expel an injured companion, lest beasts of prey, 

 including man, should be tempted to follow the troop. 

 In this case their conduct is not much worse than that 

 of the North American Indians who leave their feeble 

 comrades to perish on the plains, or the Feegeans, who, 

 when their parents get old or fall ill, bury them alive. 10 



Many animals, however, certainly sympathise with 

 each other's distress or clanger. This is the case even 

 with birds ; Capt. Stansbury n found on a salt lake in 

 Utah an old and completely blind pelican, which was 

 very fat, and must have been long and well fed by his 

 companions. Mr. Blyth, as he informs me, saw Indian 

 crows feeding two or three of their companions which 

 were blind ; and I have heard of an analogous case 

 with the domestic cock. We may, if we choose, call 

 these actions instinctive ; but such cases are much too 

 rare for the development of any special instinct. 12 I 

 have myself seen a dog, who never passed a great 

 friend of his, a cat which lay sick in a basket, with- 

 out giving her a few licks with his tongue, the surest 

 sign of kind feeling in a dog. 



It must be called sympathy that leads a courageous 

 dog to fly at any one who strikes his master, as he 

 certainly will. I saw a person pretending to beat a 

 lady who had a very timid little dog on her lap, and 

 the trial had never before been made. The little crea- 



10 Sir J. Lubbock, ' Prehistoric Times,' 2nd edit. p. 416. 



11 As quoted by Mr. L. H. Morgan, * The American Beaver,' 18GS, 

 p. 272. Capt. Stansbury also gives an interesting account of the man- 

 ner in which a very young pelican, carried away by a strong stream, 

 was guided and encouraged in its attempts to reach the shore by half a 

 dozen old birds. 



12 As Mr. Bain states, " effective aid to a sufferer springs from syra- 

 " pathy proper:" ' Mental and Moral Science,' 1868, p. 245. 



