50 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



leaders fight a duel, and the conqueror annexes the 

 rival's following. When Lady Florence Dixie's 

 horses were attacked by a wild drove the biggest 

 of the tame animals fought the wild leader and was 

 beaten. None of the others attempted resistance, 

 and their owners could with difficulty prevent their 

 being driven off by the conqueror. But horses have 

 a natural taste for drill. The riderless chargers at 

 Balaclava ranged themselves in line with the surviv- 

 ing troopers ; and Byron's fine lines in * Mazeppa ' : 



' In one vast squadron they advance, 

 A thousand horse, the wild, the free, 

 Like waves that follow o'er the sea. 



They stop, they start, they snuff the air, 

 Gallop a moment here and there, 

 Approach, retire, wheel round, and round.' 



do not seem to exaggerate the natural military 

 instinct of the horse. The writer remembers to 

 have read of a number of cavalry horses abandoned 

 on the coast in a retreat, ranging themselves in 

 squadrons and fighting a battle on the sands. The 

 stories of their forming a ring to resist the attacks 

 of wolves may be true ; but it is difficult to find 

 any reliable account of such combination. Indian 

 wolves have been seen to leave some of their 

 number in ambush at points on the edge of the 



