A CURIOUS TRAIT IN ANIMAL 
CHARACTER 
NTENSE dislike of all strange objects that live 
and move is a characteristic common to all 
species of animals which are sufficiently organized 
to have likes and dislikes. In man the character- 
istic is seen in the hatred of foreigners which prevails 
among savage and partially civilized races. When the 
heathen Chinee tries to keep the “foreign devil” out of 
his country, he is merely giving expression to a feeling 
which he has inherited from his animal ancestors—the 
hatred of strange species, 
The savage, when he sets upon and slays the white 
man who ventures into his domain, is but giving rather 
more forcible expression to the same feeling. The 
London street-boys, when they follow and shout out 
after any person displaying some peculiarity of dress, 
are doing much what gregarious animals do when a 
strange species suddenly appears in their midst. 
A mammal or a bird regards every other species 
with which it is acquainted either with intensely hostile 
feelings or with supreme indifference. When it is sud- 
denly confronted with a strange new species it is, for 
the moment, nonplussed, It, however, gives itself the 
benefit of the doubt, sets down the new creature as 
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