Chap. III. 
MORAL SENSE. 
77 
history, unless indeed the explanation which has been 
suggested is true, that their instinct or reason leads them 
to expel an injured companion, lest beasts of prey, 
including man, should be tempted to follow the troop. 
In this case their conduct is not much worse than that 
of the North American Indians who leave their feeble 
comrades to perish on the plains, or the Feegeans, who, 
when their parents get old or fall ill, bury them alive . 10 
Many animals, however, certainly sympathise with 
each other’s distress or danger. This is the case even 
with birds; Capt. Stansbury 11 found on a salt lake in 
Utah an old and completely blind pelican, which was 
very fat, and must have been long and well fed by his 
companions. Mr. Blyth, as he informs me, saw Indian 
crows feeding two or three of their companions which 
were blind ; and I have heard of an analogous case 
with the domestic cock. We may, if we choose, call 
these actions instinctive ; but such cases are much too 
rare for the development of any special instinct . 12 I 
have myself seen a dog, who never passed a great 
friend of his, a cat which lay sick in a basket, with- 
out giving her a few licks with his tongue, the surest 
sign of kind feeling in a dog. 
It must be called sympathy that leads a courageous 
dog to fly at any one who strikes his master, as he 
certainly will. I saw a person pretending to beat a 
lady who had a very timid little dog on her lap, and 
the trial had never before been made. The little crea- 
10 Sir J. Lubbock, 4 Prehistoric Times/ 2nd edit. p. 446. 
11 As quoted by Mr. L. H. Morgan, ‘ The American Beaver/ 1868, 
p. 272. Capt. Stansbury also gives an interesting account of the man- 
ner in which a very young pelican, carried away by a strong stream, 
was guided and encouraged in its attempts to reach the shore by half a 
dozen old birds. 
12 As Mr. Bain states, “ effective aid to a sufferer springs from sym- 
pathy proper 4 Mental and Moral Science/ 1868, p. 245. 
