570 On the Counterfeiting of Death 



it lies, not dead, but exhausted, its jaws open, its tongue ex- 

 tended, its eyes dimmed; and there it would lie until the 

 bottle-fly should come to deposit its eggs [larvae], did not its 

 tormentor at length walk off. ' Surely,' says he to himself, 

 ' the beast must be dead.' But no ! reader, it is only * possum - 

 ing; and no sooner has its enemy withdrawn, than it gradu- 

 ally gets on its legs, and once more makes for the woods." * 



The foregoing instance tends in the main to substantiate 

 Dr. Weissenborn s statement, as concerns the circumstance 

 of its primarily contracting itself into a ball. The same, how- 

 ever, cannot be said in the instance of the kanchil (Tragulus 

 javanicus, one of the Moschidae), which is said to practise a 

 similar ruse when caught in nooses. It lies stretched, and 

 looking as if strangled; but, if the hunter undoes the noose, 

 the kanchil is apt to vanish in an instant. j- The following 

 anecdote occurs in the Field Naturalist's Magazine^ vol. i. 

 p. 189.: — 



" When the interesting bird named from its cry the corn- 

 crake (Crex pratensis) is alarmed, it has the instinct, in com- 

 mon with some other animals, and especially insects, to feign 

 death. A gentleman had one brought him by his dog, that 

 was dead to all appearance. As it lay on the ground, he 

 turned it over with his foot ; he was convinced it was dead. 

 Standing by, however, some time in silence, he suddenly 

 saw it open one eye. He then took it up, its head fell, its 

 leo-s hung down, it appeared again totally dead. He put it 

 into his pocket; and before very long he felt it all alive, and 

 struggling to escape; he took it out, it was lifeless as before. 

 He then laid it on the ground, and retired to some distance ; 

 in about five minutes it warily raised its head, looked round, 

 and decamped at full speed." It is needless to remark, that 

 Dr. Weissenborn's position that " when the higher animals, 

 as the partridge and hare, keep immovable, that their loco- 

 motion may not draw upon them the attention of some enemy, 

 they do so with their eyes open, and ready to start, though 

 their volition is sometimes paralysed by fear," will not ap- 

 ply in this instance. It recalls to my mind a tame brambling 

 (Fringilla Montifringilla Li?ina?us), which I long kept in con- 

 finement, and which would simulate death, whenever handled, 

 with surprising pertinacity. This bird would remain motion- 

 less, with its eyes closed, and suffer itself to be rolled back- 

 wards and forwards in the open hand, but not to be thrown 

 up; I have frequently thus carried it round a room, to show 

 it to different persons : after a while, it would warily open one 



* Audubon's Ornithological Biography, iii. 456, 

 -J- Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles. 



