ACTIONS OF ANIMALS EXPLAINED 



their utilitarian meaning and origin. So, if a 

 hunted creature shows the whites of its eyes as it 

 flees, this merely means that instinct teaches it to 

 look backwards as much as possible without check- 

 ing its flight. 



Because we should be conscious of terror in 

 like case is no reason for presuming that animals, 

 which spend their lives in alternate spells of panic 

 and quiet grazing, are similarly conscious of 

 knowing that they suffer the pangs of fear. Ex- 

 periences that might wreck a human being's nerves 

 for the rest of his life are matters of everyday 

 occurrence to wild things. 



" Why does a worm wriggle when being 

 threaded on a hook? " For the same reason, of 

 course, that it wriggles with equal violence when 

 it is held so gently as not to injure it at all, but 

 merely to restrain it. It has the instinct of self- 

 preservation, implanted in it for the good of the 

 race; and a race of worms which did not wriggle 

 with all their might when held in restraint or in- 

 jured, would soon become extinct. 



The ninth and last question presupposes an 

 uncanny amount of intelligence on the part of 

 cattle and sheep, because it implies that, when 

 they are being driven to the slaughterhouse they 

 know what is in store for them. Of course they do 

 not ; and on Blackf riars Bridge, in London, I have 

 [65] 



