A Deer's Bill of Fare. 



207 



unaristocratic sheep is not a deer, — when it comes to a 

 question of the individuality and interest of the two crea- 

 tures, as well compare a wheelbarrow with the swallow 

 that skims above the surface of a lake, as the stupidly use- 

 ful sheep with the deer, symbol of free and keen activity 

 in the wild life. An instinct apparently saves the deer 

 from eating the poisonous mountain laurel which causes 

 the death of so many sheep. The deer are old residents 

 here and do not make rash mistakes; they are doubtless 

 protected by instinct developed through long cycles of 

 time and by vicissitudes of every sort. Natural selection 

 with them has developed an infallible instinct, far safer 

 in a case of this sort than man's reason, which has this 

 great limitation and fault, that unless supplemented by 

 wide experience and a strongly retentive memory, it must 

 each time act ab initio under the direction of the will, 

 whereas instinct makes its selection automatically, by no 

 effort of the will. The creature's ancestors have equipped 

 him in this admirable way for the struggle of existence. 

 The deer thus rejects instinctively poisons which prove 

 fatal to cattle and sometimes to man. The deer ''do not 

 like" them. Sheep, cattle, horses, and man are often 

 tempted. The deer inherit their protective likes and dis- 

 likes. This is instinct, which man has exchanged for 

 other powers complicated and far-reaching. It is the 

 exercise of one of these faculties which gives him pleasure 

 in studying a creature so highly organized and so different 

 from himself as the deer. The deer in the gratification of 

 his appetite is as little as possible like the carnivorous 

 animals. They tear and devour their food with a fierce 

 lust which brooks no interference. Until their hunger is 

 appeased they are considerably more dangerous to any 



