136 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



THE SUPERIORITY OF THE FEMALE IN 

 NATURAL HISTORY. 



ABUNDANT instances are given us in the annals 

 of natural history of this superiority, and the 

 close study of this subject reveals the undoubted 

 fact that the feminine mind controls the action of the 

 paired one. , whether in beast, bird, or fish. The arro- 

 gation of this superiority is also acknowledged by the 

 old writers, both in this and continental countries. 



Everyone is familiar with the architectural instincts of 

 the elephant, without which irrigation work could scarcely 

 be carried out in hot countries where the natural beast 

 of burden with us, viz., the horse, cannot be employed. 

 As for road-making and the laying of pipes for drainage 

 he is indispensable, and he is known to exercise a deal of 

 prudence, more so than any other beast of burden. He 

 not only is capable of undertaking tremendous tasks but 

 he has the natural instinctive quality largely developed of 

 finding out the shortest possible routes to the required 

 rendezvous, choosing the easiest slopes, and thereby 

 gaining his goal with a minimum of exertion, so unlike 

 other animals. 



When travelling in herds the female invariably leads, 

 proving that sagacity is more conspicuous in the gentler 

 sex of this gigantic animal. 



Take another animal, the gnu. The cows will them- 

 selves expel an obnoxious bull from their society without 

 more ado ; and so it is obvious that, even among the 

 quadrupeds, the male, for all his superior pluck and much 

 talked of courage, does not have things all his own way. 



It has also been observed that in the American piairie 

 the heifer in its infuriation is more dangerous than a bull ; 

 for the bull charges straight ahead, as if blindfolded, intent 

 on mastering its foe by sheer force, whereas the more 

 subtle cow will run at the enemy sideways, with a keen 

 eye to an effective sidelong thrust with her sharp horns. 



