ANIMAL NOTABLES 183 



walked off. He was perhaps thirty yards away when I 

 happened to look after him, and saw the jackal raise its 

 head, which had been trailing on the ground close to it, 

 look round stealthily for two or three seconds, and then 

 bite the coolie in the calf of the leg. The man dropped 

 the jackal with a loud yell, and it made off into the 

 jungle, apparently little the worse for its wound, and was 



seen no more. 



H. C. I. 



April 1, 1905. 



NOTE. Extraordinary as it sounds, the jackal died 



physiologically (a death in life), was told to sham death 



by instinct, and came to life at the right moment by 

 intelligence. (See p. 94.) 



ANIMAL MESMEEISM 



In your article last week bearing the above title you 

 say : ' ' Both stoats and weasels are said to gyrate in order 

 to fascinate small birds." In July, 1885, while walking 

 from Ilkley towards Bolton Abbey, I observed, in a lonely 

 lane, something red whirling round and round, and, 

 looking attentively, saw that it was a stoat going round 

 and round in a circle. Wondering what might be the 

 object of this movement on the part of the little red 

 rascal, I stood still, and presently saw a large blackbird 

 hopping nearer and nearer towards the stoat, not, I would 

 submit, fascinated, but out of pure curiosity to see what 

 was going on. Nearer and nearer came the blackbird, 

 when at last I shouted, and thus saved the poor " ouzel 

 cock " from death. 



EICHARD F. JUPP. 



May 28, 1904. 



NOTE. Mr. Hudson relates a similar incident in 

 " Hampshire Days," and Mr. Thomson (" British Mam- 

 mals ") how he saw a fox making circles round a pheasant, 

 which stood as if dazed. Is it not possible that the black- 



