DESERT ANIMALS 



171 



son he is likely to produce blood-poisoning, 

 which is miscalled hydrophobia. 



Taking them for all in all, they seem like a 

 precious pack of cutthroats, these beasts and 

 reptiles of the desert. Perhaps there never was 

 a life so nurtured in violence, so tutored in at- 

 tack and defence as this. The warfare is con- 

 tinuous from the birth to the death. Every- 

 thing must fight, fly, feint, or use poison ; and 

 every slayer eventually becomes a victim. What 

 a murderous brood for Nature to bring forth ! 

 And what a place she has chosen in which to 

 breed them ! Not only the struggle among 

 themselves, but the struggle with the land, 

 the elements — the eternal fighting with heat, 

 drouth, and famine. What else but fierceness 

 and savagery could come out of such condi- 

 tions ? 



But, after all, is there not something in the 

 sheer brute courage that endures, worthy of our 

 admiration ? These animals have made the best 

 out of the worst, and their struggle has given 

 them a physical character which is, shall we 

 not say, beautiful ? Perhaps you shudder at the 

 thought of a panther dragging down a deer — 

 one enormous paw over the deer's muzzle, one 

 on his neck, and the strain of all the back mus- 



The 



cutthroat 



band. 



The 

 eternal 



Brute 

 courage- 



