2IO 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



known dangers that must be called a deliberate self-sacri- 

 fice. Major Keogh's old roan, the only survivor of the 

 Big-Horn massacre, was found limping about the battle- 

 field with eleven bullets in his body, yet every now and 

 then hobbling back to the place where his rider had 

 fallen ; nay, during Mehemet Ali's campaign against the 

 Wahabees a troop of baggage-camels broke away from 

 their captors and followed their comrades through the 

 fire of a burning village. 



Conscience, too, in one sense of the word, is, properly 

 speaking, factitious instinct : as a synonyme of remorse 

 it implies a post-facto feeling of compunction, — a feeling 

 unknown to the creatures of the wilderness : instinct- 

 guided, they act in conformity with their only standard 

 of right, and have nothing to reproach themselves with. 

 But the artificial circumstances of domestication alter 

 that standard, and the instincts of a captive animal 

 may betray it into actions which on second thoughts 

 appear to be at variance with its true interests. Where 

 a fox has once robbed with impunity he will try to rob 

 again, unable to realize to what degree his actions may 

 provoke the resentment or sharpen the wits of the in- 

 jured farmer. If a mischievous puppy is not punished 

 on the spot, it will expect to go scot-free. But an old 

 dog knows that the prerogatives of man include the 

 faculty of nursing his wrath. I knew a pointer bitch 

 whose contrition quite disqualified her for business for 

 the rest of the day whenever she had been guilty of a 



