314 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Sel 



Prudence in Self-Protection. 



Every man should do something to protect himself against 

 the stress and strain of emergencies. Some men seem to have 

 no prudence whatever. Others have some idea of self-protection, 

 but do not protect what is most valuable. They guard their 

 money, fame, or pride, instead of their brains, virtue, and 

 character. Now, when animals are providing for coming danger, 

 they endeavour to protect not their tails, or fur, or nails, or 

 immaterial parts. When they are not able to conceal them- 

 selves entirely from the danger, they protect their most sensitive 

 and vulnerable portions ; thus the hedgehog, in defending itself 

 with its spines from the attack of another animal, curves itself 

 downwards in such a way as to defend its head. And some 

 animals, when struck, roll themselves together and press their 

 heads on their breasts, at the same time trying to protect them 

 by covering them with the forelegs. p. 



Self-Sacrifice. 



Not uncommonly we read in biographies and elsewhere 

 eloquent panegyrics on the bravery of warriors and others on 

 occasions when they have risked their lives for their fellows. 

 It may raise our conceptions of the lower creation to remember 

 that some other existences manifest a self-sacrificing devotion 

 equal if not superior to our own. Look at the manatees. The 

 manatees (Manatus) collect together in large troops. Their 

 character is mild, affectionate, and sociable. The male, which 

 is extremely attached to his female, does not desert her in the 

 hour of danger, but defends her till his death. The young ones 

 have no less tenderness for their mother. The fishermen know 

 how to profit by the ties which unite all the members of the 

 family. They try, above all, to capture first the females, because 

 the males and the young ones follow them, to defend them, or 

 to share their fate. On the shallow weedy shores round islands 

 at the mouths of rivers, which these innocent and mild animals 

 frequent to feed on the sea-weed, are the places to look for the 

 manatees. The hunter waits for the moment when they come 

 to the surface to breathe, or else he surprises them in their sleep, 



