The .Wit of the iWild 



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of taking refuge in coma ; and in the season of 

 courtship all the males go about with a chip on 

 their shoulders, seeking and carrying on terrific 

 fights, in which neither combatant lies down 

 until he has to, and then his foe makes sure 

 that the death is real before he quits. Dr. 

 Lincecum tells how he went close to such a bat- 

 tle once and watched it a long time, the furious 

 rivals being too busy to mind him ; then " kicked 

 over " the female, " who went into a spasm." All 

 predatory animals seem to bear the creature en- 

 mity, yet few or none devour it. Dogs take every 

 opportunity to crack its bones, and from them 

 the opossum tries to escape, when he hears them 

 in time, by hastening up a tree. In a great 

 number of cases of danger, in fact, as all ac- 

 counts agree, the animal does its best to utilize 

 ordinary methods of escape or defense, running 

 or hiding or fighting in a perfectly natural way. 

 In other cases, just what or when it would be 

 hard to define exactly but apparently in the 

 presence of something so large as to make re- 

 sistance idle, the animal, when attacked or cor- 

 nered, will fall limp and "dead"; "and when 



