NATURES LAWS 315 



ing is connected with this as well as the others ; 

 it is natural for carnivorous animals to fight for 

 their prey and sometimes to struggle against 

 others before they can enjoy a meal. 



The law of self-defence is innate. The sudden 

 onslaught of the beast of prey necessarily leads 

 to a struggle. Every living animal protects itself 

 in some way from the elements, even where warm 

 clothing and caves are not necessary. Herbivorous 

 animals learn to avoid poisons and to choose dry 

 lairs ; those which have been domesticated lose this 

 faculty, and in consequence sometimes die. Hogs 

 have learnt to avoid the bites of poisonous snakes 

 and even to kill these noxious creatures for food. 

 Some animals drive off the sick, and even savage 

 man leaves his stricken friends. Civilised man 

 has grown so careful that isolation of the sick is 

 a law. Cleanliness is also very important. When 

 cats scratch a hole for their deposits they do 

 the same as the Indian of the forest, whose settle- 

 ment is free from cesspools. We cannot find a 

 speck of dirt in the bird's nest ; it is indeed " a 

 dirty bird that fouls its own nest." From the 

 beak of a bunya a sportsman once saw some- 

 thing drop ; on examination he found it to be 

 the excrement of the young. She had been 

 house-cleaning. The same bird hangs her nest 



