386 A ppenitix. 
black necks and flat grey-capped heads, snarling and 
chattering at me, glaring with fierce, beady eyes, 
THe STRANGE INSTINCTS OF CATTLE. 
In November and December, 1893, a short correspondence 
appeared in the Meld on the curious subject of “ Dogs 
burying their dead.” It arose through a letter from a Mr. 
Gould, of Albany, Western Australia, relating the following 
incident :— 
A settler shot a bitch from a neighbouring estate that had 
formed the habit of coming on to his land to visit and play 
with his dog. The dog, finding his companion dead, was 
observed to dig a large hole in the ground, into which he 
dragged the carease; but he did not cover it with earth. 
The writer wished to know if any reader of the Meld had 
met with a similar case. Some notes, which I contributed 
in reply to this letter, bear on one of the subjects treated in 
the chapter on “strange instincts,” namely, the instinct of 
social animals to protect and shield their fellows; and for 
this reason I have thought it best to reproduce them in this 
place. 
I remember on one occasion watching at intervals, for an 
entire day, a large and very savage dog keeping watch over 
the body of a dead bitch that had been shot. He made no 
attempt to bury the dead animal, but he never left it. He 
was observed more than once trying to drag the body away, 
doubtless with the intention of hiding it ; not succeeding in 
these attempts, he settled down by its side again, although 
it was evident that he was suffering greatly from thirst and 
heat. It was at last only with the greatest trouble that the 
people of the house succeeded in getting the body away and 
burying it out of his sight. 
Another instance, more to the point, occurred at my own 
house on the pampas, and I was one of several persons who 
witnessed it. A small, red, long-haired bitch—a variety of 
