DOMESTIC CATTLE. 149 



as well as one of fear, although probably, as in 

 the lifting of the bristles on the back of the 

 dog, it is chiefly shown when both emotions are 

 excited. In this country the signal is most 

 commonly displayed when there are gadflies 

 buzzing near the herd. Under such circum- 

 stances an ox will erect its tail in the most 

 extraordinary manner, and at the same time 

 seems to be seized with an unreasoning paroxysm 

 of fear. I have known teams of oxen which 

 were quietly plodding along the newly turned 

 furrows suddenly hoist their tails and dash away 

 across country, dragging the plough after them 

 until it either was broken to pieces or the yoke- 

 chains gave way. 



To those who know how to interpret nature's 

 hieroglyphics this habit of the ox tells a curious 

 story. Its terror is purely instinctive — that is to 

 say, the emotion does not depend upon previous 

 unpleasant experience with gadflies, but is in- 

 herent in the animal, and forms part of the 

 mental stock-in-trade which it received from its 

 wild progenitors. Whenever one finds a habit 

 or instinct so strongly marked as this, it is a sure 

 record of some decisive phase of the struggle 

 for existence, just as the monuments at Waterloo 



