340 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



among naturalists on the subject. Here it is, in Dr. 

 Romanes' words : " We may readily imagine that the 

 instinct displayed by many herbivorous animals of 

 goring sick and wounded companions, is really of 

 use in countries where the presence of weak members 

 in a herd is a source of danger to the herd from 

 the prevalence of wild beasts." Here it is assumed 

 that the sick are set upon and killed, but this is 

 not the fact ; sickness and decay from age or some 

 other cause are slow things, and increase imper- 

 ceptibly, so that the sight of a drooping member 

 grows familiar to the herd, as does that of a member 

 with some malformation, or unusual shade of colour, 

 or altogether white, as in the case of an albino. 



Sick and weak members, as we have seen, while 

 subject to some ill-treatment from their companions 

 (only because they can be ill-treated with impunity), 

 do not rouse the herd to a deadly animosity ; the 

 violent and fatal attack is often as not made on a 

 member in perfect health and vigour and unwounded, 

 although, owing to some accident, in great distress, 

 and perhaps danger, at the moment. 



The instinct is, then, not only useless but actually 

 detrimental ; and, this being so, the action of the 

 herd in destroying one of its members is not even 

 to be regarded as an instinct proper, but rather as 

 an aberration of an instinct, a blunder, into which 

 animals sometimes fall when excited to action in 

 unusual circumstances. 



The first thing that ■ strikes us is that in these 

 wild abnormal moments of social animals, they are 

 acting in violent contradiction to the whole tenor 

 of their lives ; that in turning against a distressed 



