66 The Study of Animal Life PART i 



readily given off, but these break into many fragments. 

 There can be no doubt that this habit, combined with the 

 'marvellous power of regrowth which these animals possess, 

 is of great protective value, while it is also probable in regard 

 to both Echinoderms and some worms, that the disruption 

 of parts may really increase the number of individuals. 



There is no need to enumerate all the protective habits 

 and devices which animals exhibit. Some " feign " death, 

 by falling in panic into a state allied to hypnotic trance, 

 perhaps in some of the higher animals by conscious decep- 

 tion ; others roll themselves up into balls, as in forms so 

 different as myriapods and armadillos ; but, finally, I shall 

 cite from Dr. Hickson's Naturalist in North Celebes one 

 other device. " I often saw advancing slowly over the 

 sea -gardens, in parties of from four to six, a group of 

 cuttle-fish, swimming with an even backward movement, 

 the fringes of their mantles and their arms trembling, 

 and- their colour gradually changing to what seemed to 

 me an almost infinite variety of hues as they passed 

 over the various beds of the sea -bottom. Then suddenly 

 there would be a commotion in what was previously a 

 calm and placid scene, the striped and speckled reef fishes 

 would be seen darting away in all directions, and of the 

 cuttle-fishes all that remained were four or five clouds of ink 

 in the clear water. They had thrown dust in the eyes of 

 some small shark or voracious fish." 



But I should not like to suggest the idea that animals 

 are always careful and anxious, or forced to continual 

 struggle and shift. 



" They do not sweat and whine about their condition, 



They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, 



They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, 



Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented 



With the mania of owning things ; 



Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands 



of years ago ; 



Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth." 



WALT WHITMAN. 



