LEAF AND TENDRIL 



his harems — all the does he can steal or cajole or 

 capture from his rivals. "I have seen a compar- 

 atively young buck," says Roosevelt, "who had 

 appropriated a doe, hustle her hastily out of the 

 country as soon as he saw another antelope in the 

 neighborhood ; while on the other hand, a big buck, 

 already with a good herd of does, will do his best 

 to appropriate any other that comes in sight." 



On the seal islands of Alaska we saw many old 

 bull seals with their harems about them — a dozen 

 or more demure-looking females resting upon low 

 bowlders, while their lord and master sat perched 

 above them on a higher rock. The defeated males, 

 too young or too old to hold their own against their 

 rivals, hung in ill-humored dejection about the 

 neighborhood. I have read that on the Pampas in 

 South America, wild stallions will capture and 

 hurry away domestic mares, if they have a chance. 



Animals are undoubtedly capable of feeling what 

 we call worry and anxiety just as distinctly as they 

 feel alarm or joy, only, of course, these emotions 

 are much more complex in man. How the mother 

 bird seems to worry as you near her nest or her 

 young ; how uneasy the cow is when separated from 

 her calf, or the dog when he has lost his master! 

 Do these dumb kindred of ours experience doubts 

 and longings and suspicions and disappointments 

 and hopes deferred just as we do ? — the same in 

 kind, if not in degree? 



148 



