THE ANIMAL VIEW OF CAPTIVITY 253 



the prisoner who knows that another will could, did 

 it choose, release him. They feel none of the cor- 

 roding sense of injustice. On the other hand, many 

 creatures, if kept in solitary confinement, suffer from 

 dejection and often die. But that is not a form of 

 captivity known at the Zoo. Though the birds and 

 animals at the Zoo do not always attain that exuberant 

 health, which to many wild creatures is the chief 

 delight of life, it is worth mentioning that even these 

 only enjoy this ecstasy of physical vigour at certain 

 seasons in the year, when food is abundant, temperature 

 agreeable, and the season of moulting or rearing the 

 young is passed. On the other hand, wild animals 

 when confined can enjoy the comforts of semi-domesti- 

 cation with less risk than wild men can endure the 

 comforts of semi-civilisation. Wild cattle, antelopes, 

 zebras, cats, large and small, elephants, the hippo- 

 potamus and rhinoceros, and semi-Arctic, as well as 

 semi-tropical birds, live in perfect health and condition 

 in houses artificially warmed ; and in the case of the 

 ruminant animals on food artificially prepared. The 

 wild cattle, elephants and antelopes, are in condition 

 equalling or exceeding that in which they are found 

 in their native jungles or plains, a curious contrast to 

 the fate of the tamed Fuegian Indians. These men, 

 whom Darwin describes as c savages of the lowest 

 grade/ were, according to a writer in Scribner s 



