The Death- feigning Instinct. 203 



draws 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 himself, 

 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, practise 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 behaviour 

 on being left to itself appears to prove, yet has its 

 body thrown by extreme terror into that benumbed 

 condition which simulates death, and during which 

 it is unable to feel the tortures practised on it. 



The swoon sometimes actually takes place before 

 the animal has been touched, and even when the 

 exciting 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 

 apparently 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 



