ANIMALS IN SOCIETY 27 



are a fool," went off up the hill to join his com- 

 panion. When out of sight the little one took 

 courage, got over the fence with a scramble, and 

 followed/ An animal which has the slave -using 

 instinct, and the instinct of sympathy, and desires 

 to give practical aid to another, evidently possesses 

 the necessary intelligence for developing a more com- 

 plex form of society than that in which deer now 

 live. The probable reason that it does not do so is 

 that which has been already suggested that their 

 life is already perfect, for them, and needs no im- 

 provements. This is partly corroborated by the 

 greater development of common organisation in 

 creatures of far lower intelligence the common wild 

 rabbits. Experience seems to have taught them that 

 they are far safer when avoiding their enemies 

 underground than on the surface, and that the 

 chances of escape from a stoat or weazei are greater 

 when numbers of burrows are combined into a 

 labyrinth of passages, than if each had a separate 

 and disconnected burrow. It is evident that the 

 food supply would be larger and more lasting if 

 they lived apart ; yet they always prefer to unite 

 in colonies, and the combined dwellings of the rabbit 

 must be looked upon as the result of a genuine 

 social instinct. Most rodents are singularly stupid 

 creatures individually, yet in another of the class, 



