The Strange Instincts of Cattle. 331 



ing with the passion of the animal when experience 

 and reason were its guides. 



But the more I consider the point the more am I 

 inclined to regard these two instincts as separate 

 in their origin, although I retain the belief that 

 cattle and horses and several wild animals are 

 violently excited by the smell of blood for the 

 reason just given namely, their inherited memory 

 associates the smell of blood with the presence 

 among them of some powerful enemy that threatens 

 their life. To this point I shall return when deal- 

 ing with the last and most painful of the instincts 

 I am considering. 



The following incident will show how violently 

 this blood passion sometimes affects cattle, when 

 they are permitted to exist in a half- wild condition, 

 as on the pampas. I was out with my gun one day, 

 a few miles from home, when I came across a patch 

 on the ground where the grass was pressed or 

 trodden down and stained with blood. I con- 

 cluded that some thievish gauchos had slaughtered 

 a fat cow there on the previous night, and, to 

 avoid detection, had somehow managed to carry 

 the whole of it away on their horses. As I walked 

 on, a herd of cattle, numbering about three hun- 

 dred, appeared moving slowly on towards a small 

 stream a mile away ; they were travelling in a thin 

 long line, and would pass the blood-stained spot 

 at a distance of seven to eight hundred yards, 

 but the wind from it would blow across their 

 track. When the tainted wind struck the leaders of 

 the herd they instantly stood still, raising their 

 heads, then broke out into loud excited bellowings ; 



