1903 How the Animals Die 9 



water. And sometimes it is but a blind impulse to get away, 

 as many birds fly straight out to sea till they can go no 

 farther, and fold their tired wings and sleep ere the ocean 

 touches them. 



One day you may see your canary fluttering his unused 

 wings ceaselessly against the bars of his cage, where he lived 

 so long content. Were you wise, you would open the door ; 

 for a call, stronger far than your artificial relations, is bidding 

 him come — the call of his forgotten ancestors. Next day he 

 lies dead on the floor of his cage, and there is left for him 

 only a burial more artificial than his poor life. 



" But," some reader objects, " what about the catastrophes, 

 the tragedies ? " There may be a few, possibly, if you see 

 with your imagination rather than with your eyes ; but they 

 are rarer far than human catastrophes. And as the vast 

 majority of mankind die, not by earthquake or famine, 

 but peacefully on their beds, so the vast majority of wild 

 creatures die quietly in beds of their own choosing. Except 

 where man steps in and interferes with the natural order of 

 things, or brutally kills a brooding or nursing mother, Nature 

 knows no tragedies. A partridge falls under the owl's swoop. 

 That is bad for the partridge, — who is, however, almost in- 

 variably one of the weak or foolish ones who have not learned 

 to be obedient with his brethren, — but there are two young 

 owls up in the tree yonder who will rejoice and be glad at 

 the good dinner brought home to them by a careful and 

 loving mother. 



As a rule, Nature, as well as man, protects her brooding 

 mother, on whom helpless lives depend, with infinite care 

 and cunning. Even the fox cannot smell them at such 

 times, though he pass close by. But should the mother 

 fall, — even here we have let our human imagination run 

 away with us, — the young do not starve to death, as we 

 imagine pitifully. They cry out for their dinner ; the mother 

 is not near to hush them, to tell them that silence is the law 

 of the woods for helpless things. They cry again ; the crow 

 or the weasel hears, and there is a speedy end to the family 

 without delay or suffering. This is the way of the woods. 



There are violent deaths, to be sure ; but these are usually 

 the most painless and merciful. A deer goes down under 



