33° The Naturalist in La Plata. 



emotion so slight as to be scarcely perceptible to 

 the greatest extremes of rage or terror. 



(2) The angry excitement roused in some animals 

 when a scarlet or bright-red cloth is shown to 

 them. So well known is this apparently insane 

 instinct in our cattle that it has given rise to 

 a proverb and metaphor familiar in a variety of 

 forms to everyone. 



(3) The persecution of a sick or weakly animal 

 by its companions. 



(4) The sudden deadly fury that seizes on the 

 herd or family at the sight of a companion in ex- 

 treme distress. Herbivorous mammals at such 

 times will trample and gore the distressed one to 

 death. In the case of wolves, and other savage- 

 tempered carnivorous species, the distressed fellow 

 is frequently torn to pieces and devoured on the 

 spot. 



To take the first two together. When we con- 

 sider that blood is red ; that the smell of it is, or 

 may be, or has been, associated with that vivid 

 hue in the animal's mind ; that blood, seen and 

 smelt is, or has been, associated with the sight of 

 wounds and with cries of pain and rage or terror 

 from the wounded or captive animal, there appears 

 at first sight to be some reason for connecting these 

 two instinctive passions as having the same origin 

 — namely, terror and rage caused by the sight of 

 a member of the herd struck down and bleeding, 

 or struggling for life in the grasp of an enemy. I 

 do not mean to say that such an image is actually 

 present in the animal's mind, but that the inherited 

 or instinctive passion is one in kind and in its work- 



