120 STUPIDITY. 



its companions remain beside it, regardless of the hunter's 

 approach' (Prejevalsky). 



In our own common domestic sheep, the most familiar, 

 and frequently to them very fatal, form of stupidity exhibited, 

 is e following the lead ' of their bell-wether, with utter ab- 

 sence of discrimination, reflection or consideration of conse- 

 quences. Thus a flock of 100 sheep 011 an Alpine pasture 

 in the canton of the Grisons, Switzerland, being frightened 

 by the appearance of some vultures, their bell-wether jumped 

 over a cliff and was killed. The whole flock followed, to 

 their own inevitable destruction, with the exception of the 

 last few, who escaped with their lives ' owing to the bolster- 

 ing formed by the corpses of their silly comrades.' 1 Here 

 we have the effect or an effect of fright and panic ; and a 

 similar result is produced by a similar cause sometimes when 

 a flock of sheep get upon a railway line, and a puffing or 

 screeching engine approaches. Bewildered apparently by 

 the sudden, unexpected, unfamiliar sight or sound, or by 

 both, paralysed perhaps partly by surprise, partly by terror, 

 they fail to make the one or two steps in a direction at right 

 angles to the rails, that would place them in safety, and so 

 are cut to pieces wholesale. 



The sheep, according to Baird, has no idea of self- 

 defence there is utter helplessness under attack. But he 

 is certainly wrong if he includes, as he must do, the male, 

 the ram in the wild and semi- wild state. Hogg describes 

 the sheep as a stupid animal, but nevertheless gives instances 

 in it of great intelligence, for instance in way-finding. 



Youatt dwells feelingly on the mistaken character as- 

 signed to the poor sheep. He describes the moufflon in its 

 wild or natural state as intelligent, self-reliant, courageous, 

 even attacking the dog. Its cowardice or timidity is the 

 result, he thinks, of education, association with man, or 

 habit : it is an acquired quality, referable to its habitual 

 dread of the dog and of man. Even the common sheep 

 is capable of excitement to fierceness by the dog, and it at- 

 tempts to frighten or menace it by stamping and whistling. 

 Under the genial treatment of the Eastern shepherd, it 



1 Daily Review,' Edinburgh, July 6, 1875. 



