THE ELEMENTS OF MIND 201 



nervous birds, have been known to drop from their 

 perch unconscious under the influence of great 

 fear (14). 



The horse is, perhaps, of all animals, the one 

 which occasionally gives itself over most com- 

 pletely to the emotion of fear, as everyone who 

 has witnessed the terrible abandon of a runaway 

 team can testify. Ants, fishes, birds, cats, dogs, 

 horses, monkeys, porpoises, and many other 

 animals play. Young kittens, colts, and puppies 

 enjoy a scuffle about as well as boys do. Pugnacity 

 originates among the spiders and insects, and is 

 highly developed in the ant, cock, and bulldog. 

 This emotion is strong in the males of nearly all 

 vertebrates. Anyone who has observed the vigi- 

 lance displayed by fishes in protecting their nests 

 can have little doubt that these comparatively 

 primitive beings possess pugnacity. I was one 

 evening floating in a boat by the edge of a Long 

 Island pond just over a village of perches. Each 

 nest was guarded by an assiduous male, who 

 hovered over it vigilantly, or darted this way and 

 that to drive off the piscatorial hoi polloi hanging 

 about the neighbourhood, ready to slip in at the 

 first opportunity and eat the eggs. Just to see 

 what would happen, I put my hand down into 

 the water and moved it slowly toward one of the 

 nests. To my surprise, the guardian of the nest, 

 instead of fleeing in alarm, proceeded to show 

 fight. It chased my hand away time after time, 

 and when the hand was not removed it would nip 

 it vigorously, not once simply, but two or three 



