NUMBER XXXVI 

 A LIMB FOR A LIFE 



OF all the ways in which animals escape from 

 tight corners, is there one more daring than 

 the surrender of a part which often saves the whole ? 

 Seemingly daring, one should say, however, for all 

 the ordinary cases of surrendering parts are nowadays 

 quite apart from any deliberate intention or clear 

 awareness that it is better that one member should 

 perish than that the whole life should be lost. A 

 starfish, seized by one of its arms, surrenders this 

 to the captor and escapes with the other four, re- 

 growing the missing part at its leisure. But it does 

 not think over its sacrifice of a limb for a life, or 

 make up its mind that it is worth while. It is 

 nowadays part of the inborn make-up of the starfish 

 to behave in this particular way. 



The highest level at which surrender of parts is 

 practised is among lizards, many of which need but 

 little provocation to induce them to surrender their 

 tail to their assailant an expedient that often saves 

 their life. The British limbless lizard or slow- 

 worm has an almost uncanny readiness in surrender- 

 ing the tail of its snake-like body. That lizards have 



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