WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



indignant bunny would be hurling invectives, 

 jerking his plume -like tail viciously the while, 

 from the security of a lofty perch. 



This inquisitiveness, which leads animals to 

 try to examine closely anything strange, is taken 

 advantage of by the larger beasts who seek them 

 as food. The puma of the Pampas, when he is 

 hungry for a dinner and has found a herd of gua- 

 nacos, simply lies down and lets his presence be- 

 come known. The foolish guanacos circle about 

 nearer and nearer, craning their long necks, until 

 they have come within leaping distance, and the 

 great cat strikes one down. So "rats and mice 

 and such small deer/' and less often the wide- 

 awake squirrels, fall victims to serpents by ap- 

 proaching too close in order to study the reptile, 

 which they seem not to recognize and flee from 

 until struck at; at any rate, a mouse placed in a 

 cage with a captive snake rarely exhibits any fear 

 or distrust. This is an instructive fact, and goes 

 against the prevalent belief that all wild animals 

 have an intuitive dread of "natural enemies"; 

 Professor Lloyd Morgan and other experimenters 

 have shown, indeed, that very young chicks are 

 no more moved by the appearance of a hawk than 

 by that of their own mother. A man can make 



9 



