LEAF AND TENDRIL 



and non-resisting as a Quaker. Then let me take 

 him up out of harm's way, and see how his tone 

 would change, and what a setting-out he would give 

 those dogs ! 



I do not believe that animals ever commit suicide. 

 I do not believe that they have any notions of death, 

 or take any note of time, or ever put up any " bluflf 

 game," or ever deliberate together, or form plans, 

 or forecast the seasons. They may practice decep- 

 tion, as when a bird feigns lameness or paralysis 

 to decoy you away from her nest, but this of course 

 is instinctive and not conscious deception. There 

 is on occasion something that suggests cooperation 

 among them, as when wolves hunt in relays, as 

 they are said to do, or when they hunt in couples, 

 one engaging the quarry in front, while the other 

 assaults it from the rear; or when quail roost upon 

 the ground in a ring, their tails to the centre, their 

 heads outward ; or when cattle or horses form a 

 circle when attacked in the open by wild beasts, 

 the cattle with their heads outward, and the horses 

 with their heels. Of course all this is instinctive, 

 and not the result of deliberation. The horse always 

 turns his tail to the storm as well, and cows and 

 steers, if I remember rightly, turn their heads. 



A family of beavers work together in building 



their dam, but whether or not they combine their 



strength upon any one object and thus achieve 



unitedly what they could not singly, I do not know. 



146 



