THE DESCENT OB ORIGIN OF MAN 141 



Many animals, however, certainly sympathize with each 

 other's distress or danger. This is the case even with birds. 

 Captain Stansbury" found on a salt lake in Utah an old and 

 completely blind pelican, which was very fat, and must have 

 been well fed for a long time by his companions. Mr. Blyth, 

 as he informs me, saw Indian crows feeding two or three of 

 their companions which were blind ; and I have heard of an 

 analogous case with the domestic cock. We may, if we 

 choose, call these actions instinctive; but such cases are 

 much too rare for the development of any special instinct.'* 

 I have myself seen a dog who never passed a cat wbo lay 

 sick in a basket, and was a great friend of his, without 

 giving her a few licks with his tongue, the surest sign 

 of kind feeling in a dog. 



It must be called sympathy that leads a courageous dog 

 to fly at any one who strikes his master, as he certainly will. 

 I saw a person pretending to beat a lady, who had a very 

 timid little dog on her lap, and the trial had never been 

 made before ; the little creature instantly jumped away, but 

 after the pretended beating was over, it was really pathetic 

 to see how perseveringly he tried to lick his mistress's face, 

 and comfort her. Brehm" states that when a baboon in 

 confinement was pursued to be punished, the others tried 

 to protect him. It must have been sympathy in the cases 

 above given which led the baboons and Cercopitheoi to 

 defend their young comrades, from the dogs and the eagle. 

 I will /?ive only one other instance of sympathetic and heroic 

 conduct, in the case of a little American monkey. Several 

 years ago a keeper at the Zoological Gardens showed me 

 Borne deep and scarcely healed wounds on the nape of his 

 own neck, inflicted on him, while kneeling on the floor, by 



'» As quoted by Mr. L. H. Morgan, "The American Beaver," 1868, p. 212. 

 Captain Stansbury also gives an interesting account of the manner in which a 

 very young pelican, carried away by a strong stream, was guided and encour- 

 aged in its attempts to reach the shore by half a dozen old birds. 



" As Mr. Bain states, "effective aid to a sufferer springs from sympathy 

 proper": "Mental and Moral Science,* l868, p. 245. 



» "Thierieben," B. L s. 85. 



