326 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
is discoverable. In such a case, the animal, goaded 
by its instinctive fear, turns to the one spot that 
horses avoid ; and although that spot has hitherto 
been fearful to him, the old fear is forgotten in the 
present and far more vivid one; the vicinity of his 
master’s house represents a solitary place to him, 
and he seeks it, just as the stricken deer seeks the 
interior of some close forest, oblivious for the time, 
in its anxiety to escape from the herd, of the dangers 
lurking in it, and which he formerly avoided. 
I have not set this explanation down merely 
because it does credit to my friend’s ingenuity, but 
because it strikes me that it is the only alternative 
explanation that can be given of the animal’s action 
in coming home to die. Another fact concerning 
the ill-tamed and barbarously treated horses of the 
pampas, which, to my mind, strengthens the view I 
have taken, remains to be mentioned. It is not an 
uncommon thing for one of these horses, after 
escaping, saddled and bridled, and wandering about 
for anight or night and day on the plains, to return 
of its own accord to the house. It is clear that in a 
case of this kind the animal comes home to seek 
relief. I have known one horse that always had to 
be hunted like a wild animal to be caught, and that 
invariably after being saddled tried to break loose, 
to return in this way to the gate after wandering 
about, saddled and bridled, for over twenty hours in 
uncomfortable freedom. 
The action of the riding-horse returning to a 
master he is accustomed to fly from, as from an 
enemy, to be released of saddle and bridle, is, no 
doubt more intelligent than that of the dying horse 
