FAINT VERSUS FEINT 



dactyle series, for we know from much evidence that 

 when a group appears it comes into existence in a 

 modest and shrinking way, to wax fat later in its history. 

 Smallness of size is a great advantage in the battle of 

 life, especially when there is not much in the way of 

 defence. This animal being hornless must trust to 

 size and swiftness for escape. It is said, however, to 

 add to these two qualities a third, that of cunning. 

 These little deer behave in the face of danger like a 

 good many animals belonging to quite different groups 

 of the animal world. Beetles, opossums and raccoons, 

 when hard pressed, and when avenues of escape seem 

 to be cut off, feign death, and then, when the danger 

 has passed by, get up and run away. It is, however, 

 a question whether this shamming is really a trick, 

 or whether it is a genuine faint or cataleptic trance 

 produced by the near proximity of the terrible. The 

 mind of the beetle would seem to be too embryonic to 

 have contracted an advantageous trick with a bene- 

 ficial result. But on the other hand it might be urged 

 that the nerves of the beetle were of iron from their 

 very imperfection, so that a possible explanation is 

 hemmed round on all sides with difficulty. 



A careful inspection of the cunning " Kanchil," as the 

 Malays call the animal, will show that it has what 

 few ruminants have, quite formidable tusks in the 

 upper jaw. These tusks have led to the quite erroneous 

 confusion of Tragulus with Moschus, the musk deer, a 

 totally different animal, a definite deer belonging to 

 the family Cervidae, though usually dignified with a 

 sub- family to itself. In the Kanchil or Meminna, to use 

 two of its native names, these tusks play, it is asserted, 

 a somewhat novel part for tusks to play. These teeth, 

 which correspond of course to the tearing canines of the 

 Carnivora, are alleged, with what truth we cannot say, 

 to allow the kanchil to suspend itself from the branch of 



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