MY SOMALI BOOK 207 



Felidae, as a general rule, kill their prey swiftly and 

 with little pain. 



Cruelty does exist in Nature : it would be easy to 

 give further instances of it. On the other hand, the 

 great majority of violent deaths are really, I believe, 

 swift and in great measure painless ; from the buck 

 killed by the leopard to the fly taken by the swallow. 



And I think, with Mr. W. J. Long, that deaths 

 from cold and hunger are usually merciful, though no 

 doubt there is some preliminary suffering. It is the 

 anticipation of death that makes the human being 

 dread starvation, while, as Wallace points out, the 

 animal has no such anticipation. For the same 

 reason, the continual state of fear of a lurking foe that 

 some would ascribe to wild animals simply does not 

 exist, as aii}^ one who has studied Nature with eyes to 

 see must realise. 



The works of Mr. Long, whom I mentioned just 

 now, have suffered a good deal of adverse criticism ; 

 but though at times I think his imagination and 

 sympathy with animal life carry him too far, he is, in 

 my opinion, one of the most charming and truest 

 observers of Nature that ever wrote on his favourite 

 subject. I think he is, in the main, entirely right 

 when he says in School of the Woods : " There can be 

 no greater mistake than to imagine an animal's life to 

 be full of frightful alarms and haunting terrors. There 

 is no terror in extreme watchfulness. To the animal 

 it is simply the use of his unusual powers, with the J03' 

 and confidence that the use of unusual powers always 

 brings, to animals as well as men. . . . Neither is 

 there any terror, usually, but rather an exultant sense 



