84 The Carnivora. 
although she may have abundance of milk. I have had half a 
dozen of these ewes at a time in my hut, trying every plan to 
induce them to feed their lambs, which seem to have no notion 
of the source of the supply, unless they are directed to it by the 
mother or the shepherd. Lying on my bunk and watching by 
the light of the fire the behaviour of the ewes towards the lambs, 
I have speculated in vain on the cause of their indifference. 
How is it that the maternal instinct is so feeble as not to re- 
spond to the wail of the young? What is the influence of domes- 
tication on animals—this indifference must surely be unknown 
among wild animals—that these Belgravian mothers refuse to 
nurse their childrenP To the best of my recollection it is 
always, or generally, the first lamb that is so treated. Possibly 
the mother, regarding its young as the cause of the distress and 
pain she has lately suffered, determines to have nothing more to 
do with it. This is all the more probable, as much repugnance 
to her child for some little time after its birth is often evinced 
by the human mother. By much persuasion and patient 
manipulation the estrangement may occasionally be overcome; 
but one sometimes witnesses the astonishing spectacle of a ewe 
walking away from her new-born lamb and never taking the 
least notice of it afterwards. Even when indifference is not 
carried to this extreme, there is much “ culpable negligence” on 
the part of the ewes, by which their lambs are lost in the bush ; 
and here an observant dog is really valuable. When, towards 
nightfall, the shepherd is moving his flock slowly homewards, 
numbers of lambs will be lying asleep hidden by tufts of grass 
or bushes, and many of their mothers will walk off without them 
as though they had no sense of responsibility whatever. On the 
lawn-like plains of the La Plata, even, where the grass is too short 
to hide a rat, a score of sleeping and deserted lambs may be 
picked up in the rear of a flock. There has been no hurry: no 
driving. The movement towards home has been determined by 
the spontaneous impulse of the flock rather than by any ex- 
pression of the shepherd’s will; yet there are mothers who go 
on cropping the grass as they wander quietly home, expressing 
