1580 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



fierce and able to inflict such terrible injury with 

 their teeth should also possess this safeguard, appar- 

 ently more suited to weak inactive creatures that can 

 not resist or escape from an enemy and to animals 

 very low down in the scale of being. When a fox is 

 caught in a trap or run down by dogs, he fights sav- 

 agely at first, but by and by relaxes his efforts, drops 

 on the ground and apparently yields up the ghost. 

 The deception is so well carried out that dogs are 

 constantly taken in by it, and no one, not well ac- 

 quainted with this clever trickery of nature, but 

 would at once pronounce the creature dead, and 

 worthy of some praise for having perished in so 

 brave a spirit. 



Now, when in this condition of feigning death, 

 I am sure that the animal does not altogether lose 

 consciousness. It is exceedingly difficult to discover 

 any evidence of life in the opossum; but when one 

 withdraws a little way from the feigning fox, and 

 watches him very attentively, a slight opening of the 

 eye may be detected ; and finally, when left to him- 

 self, he does not recover and start up like an animal 

 that has been stunned, but slowly and cautiously 

 raises his head first, and only gets up when his foes 

 are at a safe distance. Yet I have seen Gauchos, who 

 are very cruel to animals, practice the most barbarous 

 experiments on a captive fox without being able to 

 rouse it into exhibiting any sign of life. This has 

 greatly puzzled me, since if death-feigning is simply 

 a cunning habit, the animal could not suffer itself to 

 be mutilated without wincing. I can only believe 

 that the fox, though not insensible, as its behavior 



