CHAPTER XXTI. 



THE STRANGE INSTINCTS OF CATTLE. 



MY purpose in this paper is to discuss a group 

 of curious and useless emotional instincts of 

 social animals, which have not yet been properly 

 explained. Excepting two of the number, placed 

 first and last in the list, they are not related in 

 their origin; consequently they are here grouped 

 together arbitrarily, only for the reason that we 

 are very familiar with them on account of their 

 survival in our domestic animals, and because they 

 are, as I have said, useless ; also because they re- 

 semble each other, among the passions and ac- 

 tions of the lower animals, in their effect on our 

 minds. This is in all cases unpleasant, and some- 

 times exceedingly painful, as when species that 

 rank next to ourselves in their developed intelli- 

 gence and organized societies, such as elephants, 

 monkeys, dogs, and cattle, are seen under the 

 domination of impulses, in some cases resembling 

 insanity, and in others simulating the darkest 

 passions of man. 



These instincts are : 



(1) The excitement caused by the smell of blood, 

 noticeable in horses and cattle among our domestic 

 animals, and varying greatly in degree, from an 



