The Strange Instincts of Cattle. 339 



chances of recovery to perfect health would be 

 thereby greatly increased. 



It remains now to speak of that seemingly most 

 cruel of instincts which stands last on my list. It 

 is very common among gregarious animals that are 

 at all combative in disposition, and still survives in 

 our domestic cattle, although very rarely witnessed 

 in England. My first experience of it was just 

 before I bad reached the age of five years. I was 

 not at that early period trying to find out any of 

 nature's secrets, but the scene I witnessed printed 

 itself very vividly on my mind, so that I can recall 

 it as well as if my years had been five-and-twenty ; 

 perhaps better. It was on a summer's evening, and 

 I was out by myself at some distance from the house, 

 playing about the high exposed roots of some old 

 trees ; on the other side of the trees the cattle, just 

 returned from pasture, were gathered on the bare 

 level ground. Hearing a great commotion among 

 them, I climbed on to one of the high exposed 

 roots, and, looking over, saw a cow on the ground, 

 apparently unable to rise, moaning and bellowing in 

 a distressed way, while a number of her companions 

 were crowding round and goring her. 



What is the meaning of such an instinct ? Darwin 

 has but few words on the subject. " Can we believe," 

 he says, in his posthumous Essay on Instinct, " when 

 a wounded herbivorous animal returns to its own 

 herd and is then attacked and gored, that this cruel 

 and very common instinct is of any service to the 

 species ? " At the same time, he hints that such an 

 instinct might in some circumstances be useful, and 

 his hint has been developed into the current belief 



