SUICIDE. 145 



bable fate leads them to seek safety by flight from the house 

 and district leads, in short, to the kind of sudden disap- 

 pearance already spoken of in regard to the discarded dog. 



Various animals speedily notice and watch with keenest 

 interest, for their own selfish ends, the indications of dying, 

 of approaching death, in other animals, and even in man. 

 Thus the vultures of the Himalayas are described as gather- 

 ing to the number of twenty or thirty round a dying calf or 

 bullock, patiently but observantly watching and waiting for 

 its death. Other animals, however, do not wait for the death 

 of their victim before they attack it. When the whale is 

 sick or dying he is an object of attack to all the shark tribe, 

 for the sake of the coveted blubber. Some animals, again, 

 either wait for death, or attack during life, according to cir- 

 cumstances. Prairie wolves at once detect accident, sick- 

 ness, or weakness from starvation in the bison ; and they 

 either watch him day and night till death occurs, to devour 

 the carcase, or they hamstring him in his feebleness, and 

 then murder the helpless brute by tearing him to pieces 

 (Gillmore). 



Various animals recognise death itself the condition of 

 being dead in others ; and they act upon or show this recog- 

 nition in various ways. They distinguish life from death at 

 least the living from the dead ; they recognise the physical 

 signs of life or their absence ; they are aware when they 

 have killed or only wounded their prey. And they act upon 

 their knowledge or convictions ; showing terror, for instance, 

 of a sleeping or living enemy, but none, or contempt, for the 

 same enemy dead. 



In many cases they first satisfy themselves that death 

 has really occurred ; that there is no simulation, no possi- 

 bility of mistake. They make a regular diagnosis of death. 

 This is done by various kinds of test or experiment, and is 

 usually resorted to, in all probability, by old, experienced 

 animals, that are aware of the errors which may be com- 

 mitted, and that probably have themselves, and to their cost, 

 on previous occasions committed some of these very errors. 

 They are quite sensible of the risk of mistaking mere im- 

 mobility which is frequently voluntarily assumed for the 



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