ol4 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. 



grazing. Suffice it to say that the brute had acquired the 

 trick of feigning death which practically rendered its expul- 

 sion impossible, when it found itself in a desirable situation 

 which it did not w^ish to quit. The ruse was practised fre- 

 quently with the object of enjoying my excellent gTass, and 

 akhough for a time amusing, it at length became troublesome, 

 and resolving to get rid of it the sooner, I one day, when he 

 had fallen down, sent to the kitchen for a supply of hot 

 cinders, which we placed on his rump. At first he did not 

 seem to mind this much, but as the application waxed hot, 

 he gradually raised his head, took a steady look at the site 

 of the cinders, and finally getting on his legs went off at a 

 racing pace and cleared the fence like a deer. This was the 

 last occasion on which we were favoured w^itli a visit from 

 our friend." 



Now here we have a case of apparent simulation of death 

 frequently repeated wdth an intelligent purpose, and as the 

 narrator is a medical man, we must suppose that the simula- 

 tion was ^vell done. Nevertheless, the idea which the 

 animal had may only have been that of remaining inert, and 

 trusting to his weight in preventing his removal. The case, 

 however, is unquestionably a remarkable one, and the inter- 

 pretation which I have suggested becomes perhaps less pro- 

 bable in view of the other case to which I have alluded, and 

 w^hich I shall now proceed to give. This case is published in 

 the late Mr. Morgan's book on the Beaver (p. 269), and he 

 says it " was communicated to the author by Mr. Coral C. 

 White of Aurora, New York, who carried out the fox. His 

 veracity is unimpeachable." 



" A fox one nio-ht entered the hen-house of a farmer, and 

 after destroying a large number of fowls, gorged himself to 

 such repletion that he could not pass out through the small 

 aperture by which he had entered. The proprietor found 

 him in the morning sprawled out upon the floor, apparently 

 dead from surfeit ; and taking him up by the legs carried him 

 out unsuspectingly, and for some distance to the side of his 

 house, where he dropped him upon the grass. No sooner did 

 Eeynard find himself free than he sprang to his feet and 

 made his escape. He seemed to know that it was only as a 

 dead fox that he would be allowed to leave the scene of his 

 spoliations ; and yet to devise this plan of escape required 

 no ordinary effort of intelligence," &c. 



