THE DEATH-FEIGNING INSTINCT 1581 



on being left to itself seems to prove, yet has its body 

 thrown by extreme terror into that benumbed condi- 

 tion which simulates death, and during which it is 

 unable to feel the tortures practiced upon it. 



The swoon sometimes actually takes place before 

 the animal has been touched, and even when the ex- 

 citing cause is at a considerable distance. I was once 

 riding with a Gaucho, when we saw, on the open 

 level ground before us, a fox, not yet fully grown, 

 standing still and watching our approach. All at 

 once it dropped, and when we came up to the spot 

 it was lying stretched out, with eyes closed, and ap- 

 parently dead. Before passing on, my companion, 

 who said it was not the first time he had seen such 

 a thing, lashed it vigorously with his whip for 

 some moments, but without producing the slightest 

 effect. 



The death-feigning instinct is possessed in a very 

 marked degree by the spotted tinamou or common 

 partridge of the pampas (Nomura maculosa). 

 When captured, after a few violent struggles to es- 

 cape, it drops its head, gasps two or three times, and, 

 to all appearances, dies. If, when you have seen 

 this, you release your hold, the eyes open instantly, 

 and, with startling suddenness and a noise of wings, 

 it is up and away and beyond your reach forever. 

 Possibly, while your grasp is on the bird, it does ac- 

 tually become insensible, though its recovery from 

 that condition is almost instantaneous. Birds when 

 captured do sometimes die in the hand, purely from 

 terror. The tinamou is excessively timid, and some- 

 times when birds of this species are chased for 



