SQUIRRELS val 
writings of others instances of feigning in monkeys 
which place it beyond doubt that animals may con- 
sciously and deliberately feign; yet he regards the 
matter as one of great difficulty. Unquestionably it 
is, but I must again express my conviction that 
Romanes has imported into the subject difficulties 
which are not in the nature of the case present. 
First of all, is it at all essential to “feigning” either 
death or injury that an animal should have, as 
Romanes supposes, the abstract idea of death at all? 
It is to be remembered that in these cases the animal 
simply remains as quiet and as passive as possible, 
which is in accord with all an animal’s experiences 
as to escape from danger by any form of concealment. 
We have all degrees of this. The little Chipmunk, 
when a hawk is at hand, squats, if on a fence; if near 
its burrow, rushes in, according to Dr Abbott (loc. cit.). 
It is within the observation of all, that a cat watching 
near a rat-hole feigns quiet; in like manner a dog, 
desirous of capturing the fly that has been tormenting 
him, feigns apparent unobservance or unusual in- 
activity. I suspect that a human being, suddenly 
finding himself in danger, may, and often does, exercise 
a similar control without any abstract notion of death. 
Indeed, the extent to which the abstract in this sense 
enters into the psychic life of men, if we except the 
higher class of intellects and persons well educated, 
is much less than writers have been wont to believe. 
A great part of the whole difficulty, it seems to me, 
has arisen from the use of the expression “feigning 
death.” What is assumed is inactivity and passivity, 
more or less complete. This, of course, bears a certain 
degree of resemblance to death itself. 
Returning, then, to the case of my feigning Red 
Squirrels, I should be inclined to explain their be- 
haviour somewhat as follows :— 
