88 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 



fly around, and, finding the attacker engaged, 

 would have an advantage in a fight for life which 

 no wild animal would ever allow another. Who 

 ever heard of a fox saving himself by yielding his 

 brush, as Siberian travellers are said to throw mit- 

 tens, children, and the like, to bears that chase 

 their sledges. The fact is, that about all of a fox 

 which remains uninjured, and is preservable as a 

 trophy, after the huntsman's pack has pulled him 

 down, is his brush, in which the dogs take no 

 interest. 



If, instead of this wild escapade in evolution the 

 writer quoted had devoted himself to showing that 

 the short tail of most of the deer, antelopes and 

 goats, and of rabbits and burrowing rodents, which 

 are regularly chased by swift-footed canine beasts, 

 was due to the gradual reduction of this append- 

 age through natural selection, because length was 

 a disadvantage in bulk and otherwise, without cor- 

 responding service, he might have made an argu- 

 ment both credible and interesting. These animals 

 are pursued by the carnivora, which, when overtak- 

 ing them, might seize a long tail, as they would 

 have nothing to fear from their jaws. As a matter 

 of fact this often happens to wild cattle, as used 

 to be illustrated on our western plains the fore- 

 most wolf of the pack fastening himself to the 

 buffalo's tail, and dragging back until its compan- 

 ions had reached and seized the nose and flanks 

 of the retarded animal. It might be adduced in 



