APPENDIX. 363 



for on uiitrequeiited islands, when first visited, the large 

 birds were as tame as the small. How exceedingly wary is 

 our magpie ; yet it fears not horses or cows, and sometimes 

 alights 'on their Lacks, just like the doves at the Galapagos 

 did in 1684 on Cowley. In Norway, where the magpie is 

 not persecuted, it picks up food " close about the doors, 

 sometimes walking inside the houses."* The hooded crow 

 {C. comix), again, is one of our wildest birds ; yet in Egyptf 

 is perfectly tame. Every single young magpie and crow 

 cannot have been frightened in England, and yet all are 

 fearful of man in the extreme : on the other hand, in the 

 Falkland and Galapagos Islands many old birds, and their 

 parents before them, must have been frightened and seen 

 others killed ; yet they have not acquired a salutary dread of 

 the most destructive animal, man. J 



Animals feioiiino;, as it is said, Death — an unknown state 

 to each livino- creature — seemed to me a remarkable instinct. 

 1 agree with those authors § who think that there has l)eeii 

 nmch exaggeration on this subject : I do not doubt that 

 fainting (I have had a Eobin faint in my hands) and the 

 [)aralyzing effects of excessive fear have sometimes been mis- 

 taken for the simulation of death.|| Insects are most notori- 



* Mr. C. Hewitson in Magazine of Zoology and Botang, vol. ii, p, 311. 



t G-eofFry St. Hilaire, Anns, de.s Mus., tome ix, p. 471. 



X [I have already pointed out the refined degree to whicli such instinctive 

 di'cad of man is developed Avhen it is able accurately to discriminate what 

 constitutes safe distance from fire-arms. Since "VATiting the passage to wliich 

 I allude (see ]). 197), I have met with the folio-wing observation in the letters 

 recently published by Dr. Kae in Nature, which is of interest as showing how 

 I'apidly such refinement of discrimination is attained: — "I may perhaps bo 

 ])crmitted to give one of many instances known to me of the qviickness of 

 l)irds in acquiring a knoAvledge of danger. Grolden plover, when coming from 

 their breeding-places in high latitudes, visit the islands north of Scotland in 

 large numbers, and keep together in great packs. At first they are easily 

 approached, but after a very few shots being fired at them, they become not 

 only much more shy, but seeuT to measiu'e with great accuracy the distance 

 at which they are safe from harm." — Gr. J. R.] 



§ Couch, Illustrations of Instinct, p. 201. 



II The n^ost curious case of apparently true simidation of death is tliat 

 given by Wrangel {Travels in Siberia, p. 312, Eng. trans.) of the geese which 

 migrate to the Tundras to moult, and are then quite incapable of tlight. He 

 says they feigned death so well " Avith their legs and necks stretched out 

 quite stiff, that I passed them by, thinking they were dead." But the natives 

 Avere not thus taken in. This simidation Avould not save them from foxes or 

 woIa'cs, &c., Avhich I presume inhabit tlie Tundras : Avoidd it save tliem from 

 hawks? The case seems a strange one. A lizard in Patagonia (.7o«;*«y?/ oJ' 

 Researches, p. 97), AAhich lives on tlu^ sand near tlie coast, and is s]ieckled 

 like it, when frightened feigned death Avitli outstretched legs, depressed l)ody. 



