CHAP. I. FALSE INSTINCT. 39 



fully successful ; the buffaloes amused themselves with 

 tossing the turban about, till it had opened to its full 

 length, which might be from eighteen to twenty yards, 

 which they then proceeded to rip into pieces with their 

 horns/' as if by this latter act they had achieved the 

 conquest of their enemies. The same unaccountable 

 instinct, we believe, leads nearly all the different species 

 of oxen to evince the most inveterate antipathy to any- 

 thing of a red colour ; and it is a remarkable fact, that 

 the same is manifested in their representatives among 

 the feathered creation, namely, the gallinaceous birds. 

 It is well known that, in many parts of England, flocks 

 of turkeys are driven forward merely by a piece of red 

 rag fastened to the end of a long stick, since it is 

 found that their repugnance to this odious colour makes 

 them, to avoid it, urge their pace forward. Of the 

 same nature as the foregoing, we may again advert to 

 the false instinct of the domestic hen sitting over, and 

 turning, with her usual care, a clumsy imitation in chalk 

 of her own egg. 



(47.) Stedman relates of the peccaries, or wild 

 hogs of Guiana, which live in herds of about three 

 hundred in the thickest parts of the forest, that they 

 always run in a line, the one closely following the 

 other ; but that, when the foremost or leader is shot, 

 the line is instantly broken, and the whole herd is 

 thrown into confusion. For this reason, he adds, the 

 Indians take care, if possible, to knock their captain on 

 the head before the 1 rest; after which the others even 

 stand still, stupidly looking at one another, and allow 

 themselves to killed one by one, of which I have been 

 a witness. They do not attack the human species, nor 

 make any resistance at all, like the European wild 

 boar, when wounded, as some authors have erroneously 

 asserted. In Surinam, the names of pingo and crass- 

 pingo are given to two species of the peccaries most 

 common there ; while another is called by our author 

 the Mexican hog. * 



*', Stedman, vol. i. p. 369. 

 D 4 



