THE DEATH-FEIGNING INSTINCT 1579 



species, has probably been built up by the slow cumu- 

 lative process of natural selection. 



I have met with some curious instances of the 

 paralyzing effect of fear. I was told by some hunters 

 in an outlying district of the pampas of its effect on 

 a jaguar they started, and which took refuge in a 

 dense clump of dry reeds. Though they could see 

 it, it was impossible to throw the lasso over its head, 

 and after vainly trying to dislodge it, they at length 

 set fire to the reeds. Still it refused to stir, but lay 

 with head erect, fiercely glaring at them through the 

 flames. Finally, it disappeared from sight in the 

 black smoke; and when the fire had burned itself 

 out, it was found, dead and charred, in the same spot. 



On the pampas, the Gauchos frequently take the 

 black-necked swan by frightening it. When the 

 birds are feeding or resting on the grass, two or three 

 men or boys on horseback go quietly to leeward of the 

 flock, and, when opposite to it, suddenly wheel and 

 charge it at full speed, uttering loud shouts, by which 

 the birds are thrown into such terror that they are 

 incapable of flying, and are quickly despatched. 



I have also seen Gaucho boys catch the silver-bill 

 (Lichenops perspicillata) by hurling a stick or stone 

 at the bird, then rushing at it, when it sits perfectly 

 still, disabled by fear, ancf allows itself to be taken. 

 I myself once succeeded in taking a small bird of 

 another species in the same way. 



Among mammals, our common fox (Canis azarae), 

 and one of the opossums (Didelphys azarae), are 

 strangely subject to the death-simulating swoon. For 

 it does indeed seem strange that animals so powerful, 



