156 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



proceeding offers such a contrast to the civilised 

 human method of dealing with a distressed fellow- 

 creature, and seems so wantonly cruel, that in 

 most people it provokes surprise and highly- 

 unfavourable comments. 



Now let us look at the matter in the cold 

 light of science, and strive not to mix up human 

 sentiments with bovine codes of morals. In 

 the first place, we may lay it down as an axiom 

 that the habit has in some way proved conducive 

 to the welfare of cattle ; otherwise it would never 

 have become established. The problem is, I 

 think, a fairly simple one. A bullock, like a man, 

 has two sets of obligations to observe : first, his 

 duty to himself; and secondly, his duty to his 

 neighbours. There is the same painful friction 

 in both instances when the interests of self and 

 society are not identical. A like balance has 

 to be maintained between individualism and 

 socialism in nature as in our artificial human 

 communities. 



Now, when a wild creature of the ox tribe is 

 sick or wounded, it is found that the dano^erous 

 beasts of prey, which are always prowling on the 

 outskirts of the herd, are quick in ascertaining 

 the fact, and are drawn together by the prospects 



