94 BIKDS 



scythe-like wings. It was a pleasure to have the swiftest 

 and boldest flyer amongst birds settling on one's hand 

 of its own free will, and apparently enjoying being 

 stroked and caressed ; but what induced them to act so ? 

 It was not hunger, because their stomachs had been 

 recently full. The only suggestion I can make is that 

 the cold and wet of the previous days had deprived them 

 of sleep and warmth, and I should add that a storm was 



going on at the time. 



PERCIVAL SMITH, 



Officiating Chaplain. 

 June 29, 1901. 



NOTE. I think there can be no doubt that the first part 

 of Mr. Smith's letter is an illustration of a widespread 

 phenomenon in nature the "death-feigning" instinct. 

 The swift, I think, did not go into a sleep but a trance ; it 

 did not yawn but gasped. The problem is whether in 

 moments of great peril an animal deliberately " plays 

 'possum " and shams death, or whether the agony of fear 

 induces a physical paralysis imitating the symptoms and 

 appearance of death. Now this temporary suspension of 

 life, a darkness that is not night, is one of nature's 

 mercies. Suffering, that is to say, is never needless in 

 nature; it is nature jogging the creature "come, 

 bestir yourself, or you are lost." Suffering is a 

 stimulus urging us to get rid of it by tackling the 

 cause the aching tooth wails " take me to the 

 dentist!" But when there is no escape, then pain 

 departs, its mission accomplished. (See p. 49.) But it 

 must have often happened that an animal, thus physio- 

 logically deadened, escaped its fate by its resemblance to 

 a dead object, that this was taken advantage of by natural 

 selection and acquired a definite survival value. Perhaps, 

 therefore, feigning death is an example of the co-operation 

 of mind with mechanism. The animal, that is to say, 

 works upon the raw material of a physiological condition. 

 It both feels and imitates the sleep of death, just as we 



