234 MOEAL CAUSES OF 



whom fear has been perhaps originally acquired and then 

 accumulated or intensified. Their timorousness is shown by 

 their liability to be easily startled, frightened, or panic- 

 struck. These timid animals are generally defenceless, and 

 the favourite prey of powerful enemies. They are only too 

 apt to become the ' sport ' of man, in more senses than one. 

 Timorousness frequently in this case, however, morbid or 

 unnatural in its character is a general characteristic of 

 menagerie captives. 



The West African elephant would appear to be morbidly 

 timid. ' The very sight of a fence alarms it and renders it 

 so nervous that, though it .... could break through with 

 ease, it either resigns itself to its fate, or still further renders 

 itself helpless in its frantic unsystematic attempts to get out 

 of the enclosure' (Brown), a circumstance that is duly taken 

 advantage of by the Fans in its capture. 



Fear is at all times apt to become developed in connection 

 with morbid imagination or fancy ; and fear so developed is 

 equally apt to be unreasonable and unreasoning, giving rise 

 either to undue precautions for safety, or to precipitate flight 

 with all its dangers. Hence it is that terror is always liable 

 to arise from or at the sight of unfamiliar, strange, new 

 objects, even in usually courageous animals, such as the dog 

 and horse. Hence it is that what is simply unusual is gifted 

 with an imaginary property of dangerousness. And hence, 

 also, why fear is frequently exhibited by young animals, that 

 grow out of it in proportion as the objects, which at first 

 frighten them, become simply familiar. 



A Newfoundland pup of Berkeley's ' was frightened at 



the sight of a live rabbit The first rabbit he saw was 



in a trap ; but no inducement that could offer would make 

 him touch it.' Sheep are very easily scared or alarmed, as 

 are the partridge, blackbird, and hare, by any unusual sounds 

 or sights (Baird). Terror is readily inspired, moreover, in 

 certain animals by colours, sights, sounds, or things, to which 

 others are indifferent, pointing to the presence probably in 

 the one case, and the absence in the other, of some latent 

 predisposition or idiosyncrasy. And further, terror attaches 

 itself sometimes in a singular way to special objects. Thus 



