INTRODUCTION 



of the male deer's skin, which retains its powerful 

 odour for an indefinite time, round the neck of a 

 valuable horse as a protection. . . . Considering then 

 the conditions in which C. campestris is placed — and 

 it might also be supposed that venomous snakes have 

 in past times been much more numerous than they 

 are now — it is not impossible to beUeve that the 

 powerful smell it emits has been made protective. 

 . . . The gaucho also affirms that the deer cherishes 

 a wonderful animosity against snakes ; that it be- 

 comes greatly excited when it sees one and proceeds 

 at once to destroy it, they say, by running round and 

 round it in a circle, emitting its \iolent smell in larger 

 measure, until the snake dies of suffocation. It is 

 hard to beUeve that the effect can be so great ; but 

 that the deer is a snake hater and killer is certainly 

 true : in North America, Ceylon, and other districts 

 deer have been observed excitedly leaping on 

 serpents, and kilUng them Mith their sharp-cutting 

 hoofs." W. H. Hudson, op. cit. 



\. The Life-history of the Eel {Anguilla vulgaris) : 

 H. i. 513 ff. The propagation of the Eel is referred 

 to several times in Aristotle's History of Animals : 

 538 a 3 " The Eel is neither male nor female and 

 engenders nothing of itself. Those who assert that 

 they are sometimes found with hairj- or worm-like 

 attachments speak inconsiderately, not observing the 

 situation of these attachments. For no such animal 

 is viviparous without being oviparous and no Eel has 

 ever been seen with an egg ; and viviparous animals 

 have their young in the womb and closely attached, 

 not in the belly." To the same effect 570 a. o sq. 

 where he adds : " Eels spring from the so-called 



Ixxi 



