406 LAW AND PUNISHMENT. 



pigeon, and magpie and they are sometimes summarily 

 punished, as in the case of a male magpie, whose mate had 

 consorted with a stranger male (Watson). A grey lag goose, 

 whose mate had been killed by a dog, revenged herself upon 

 the latter by a course of persistent persecution, subjecting it to 

 incessant worry. Even beetles punish each other by thump- 

 ing and thrashing (Wallace). Kites found in a state of 

 alcoholic intoxication either lose caste among their fellows 

 or are unmercifully pecked to death by them (White). A 

 queen hive bee ' having laid only drone or male eggs, was 

 stung to death by the workers, who cast her body out of the 

 hive ' (Carpenter) . 



While animals frequently and ' freely punish each other 

 for a great variety of offences and in a great variety of ways, 

 in certain cases they also punish man himself, usually in 

 revenge for some piece of cruelty, but also occasionally for 

 man's crimes against his fellow-man. Thus a male swan, 

 once resident in St. James's Park, London, a great favourite 

 of Queen Charlotte's, seized a boy that had been teasing it 

 6 by the leg of his trousers, and dragged him into the water 

 up to his knees' (' Chambers's Journal'). On the other 

 hand, dogs and cats occasionally attempt the murder of a 

 master's murderers, and in other practical and dangerous 

 ways they resent injury inflicted on those whom they love. 

 In the one case we have retaliation for, or repayment of, 

 annoyance or ill-usage ; in the other, the fruit of love, the 

 repayment of kindly usage by fierce attack on a human 

 aggressor. 



Many animals, especially young ones, feel that they 

 deserve the punishment inflicted, and punishment is usually 

 proportionate to the offence and suitable to the age and 

 character of the offender. Thus the large powerful dog 

 contents itself with merely frightening the small cur that 

 annoys it by snapping or snarling about its heels. The huge 

 Newfoundland or mastiff gives its little tormentor a good 

 shake, a bite, or a growl, or perchance a worrying or a 

 ducking in or under water. Nay, much though punishment 

 may be deserved by such a tormentor, the animal that has 

 been tormented not unfrequently shows its magnanimity by 



