304 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. 



they are unable to fly, stretch themselves at length upon the 

 ground with their heads concealed, so as to feign death and 

 deceive the sportsman. According to Couch, the habit is 

 common to the landrail, the skylark, and other birds.* 

 Among mammals, the same author says, " The opossum of 

 North America is so famous for feigning death, that its name 

 lias become proverbial as an expression of this deceit ;"* and 

 he narrates instances of the same fact with regard to mice, 

 squirrels, and weasles. The testimony on the subject with 

 re<7ard to wolves and foxes is so abundant that I do not think ' 

 there can be any reasonable question concerning its accuracy. 

 Thus Captain Lyon, in the account of his Polar Expedition, 

 says that a wolf caught in a trap which was set by Mr. Griffiths, 

 was apparently killed and then dragged on board. " The eyes, 

 however, as it lay on deck, were observed to wink, whenever 

 any object was placed near them; some precautions were 

 therefore considered necessary ; and the legs being tied, the 

 animal was hoisted up with his head downwards. He then, 

 to our surprise, made a vigorous spring at those near him ; 

 and afterwards repeatedly turned himself upwards, so as to 

 reach the rope by which he was suspended, endeavouring to 

 gnaw it asunder," &c. 



The testimony is abundant on the subject of foxes 

 shamming dead. As Mr. Blyth observes,! " a fox has been 

 known to personate a defunct carcase, w^hen surprised in a 

 hen-house, and it has even suffered itself to be carried out 

 by the brush and thrown out on a dungheap, wdiereupon it 

 instantly rose and took to its heels, to the astounding dismay 

 of its human dupe. In like manner this animal has submitted 

 to be carried for more than a mile, swinging over the shoulder 

 with its head hanging downwards, till at length it has very 

 speedily effected its release by biting." 



Similarly Couch, who gives a number of instances of the 

 fact, summarizes them thus : — " When suddenly surprised by 

 man, he has been known to assume the appearance of being 

 dead, and has suffered himself to be handled, and even ill- 

 treated, without betraying any signs of sensibility. This high 

 degree of simulation and dissimulation has been ascribed to 

 consummate wisdom, which, when a better means of escape 

 did not offer itself, prompted him to the stratagem of feigning 



* Loc. cit. t LoundourCs Mag, Nat. Hist., N.S., voL i, p. 5. 



