FACTORS IN ANIMAL LIFE 



share the alarm displayed by the older ones at the 

 smell or presence of man. A young deer that has 

 never seen a man feels no instinctive alarm at his 

 presence, or at least very little ; but it will undoubt- 

 edly learn to associate extreme alarm with his pre- 

 sence from merely accompanying its mother, if the 

 latter feels such alarm. I should not regard this as 

 schooling by the parent any more than I should so 

 regard the instant flight of twenty antelope who had 

 not seen a hunter, because the twenty-first has seen 

 him and has instantly run. Sometimes a deer or an 

 antelope will deliberately give an alarm-cry at sight 

 of something strange. This cry at once puts every 

 deer or antelope on the alert ; but they will be just as 

 much on the alert if they witness nothing but an 

 exhibition of fright and flight on the part of the first 

 deer or antelope, without there being any conscious 

 effort on its part to express alarm. 



" Moreover, I am inclined to think that on cer- 

 tain occasions, rare though they may be, there is a 

 conscious effort at teaching. I have myself known 

 of one setter dog which would thrash its puppy 

 soundly if the latter carelessly or stupidly flushed a 

 bird. Something similar may occur in the wild state 

 among such intelligent beasts as wolves and foxes. 

 Indeed, I have some reason to believe that with both 

 of these animals it does occur — that is, that there 

 is conscious as well as unconscious teaching of the 

 young in such matters as traps." 



85 



