The Strange Instincts of Cattle. 331 
ing with the passion of the animal when experience 
and reason were its guides. 
But the more I consider the point the more am I 
inclined to regard these two instincts as separate 
in their origin, although I retain the belief that 
cattle and horses and several wild animals are 
violently excited by the smell of blood for the 
reason just given—namely, their inherited memory 
associates the smell of blood with the presence 
among them of some powerful enemy that threatens 
their life. To this point I shall return when deal- 
ing with the last and most painful of the instincts 
I am considering. 
The following incident will show how violently 
this blood passion sometimes affects cattle, when 
they are permitted to exist in a half-wild condition, 
as on the pampas. I was out with my gun one day, 
a few miles from home, when I came across a patch 
on the ground where the grass was pressed or 
trodden down and stained with blood. I con- 
cluded that some thievish gauchos had slaughtered 
a fat cow there on the previous night, and, to 
avoid detection, had somehow managed to carry 
the whole of it away on their horses. As I walked 
on, a herd of cattle, numbering about three hun- 
dred, appeared moving slowly on towards a small 
stream a mile away; they were travelling in a thin 
long line, and would pass the blood-stained spot 
at a distance of seven to eight hundred yards, 
but the wind from it would blow across their 
track. When the tainted wind struck the leaders of 
the herd they instantly stood still, raising their 
heads, then broke out into loud excited bellowings ; 
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