70 
THE DESCENT OF MAH. 
Part I. 
months old, who, loudly calling for aid, climbed on a 
block of rock and was surrounded. Now one of the 
largest males, a true hero, came down again from the 
mountain, slowly went to the young one, coaxed him, 
and triumphantly led him away — the dogs being too 
much astonished to make an attack. I cannot resist 
giving another scene which was witnessed by this same 
naturalist; an eagle seized a young Cercopithecus.. 
which, by clinging to a branch, was not at once carried 
off; it cried loudly for assistance, upon which the other 
members of the troop with much uproar rushed to the 
rescue, surrounded the eagle, and pulled out so many 
feathers, that he no longer thought of his prey, but only 
how to escape. This eagle, as Urchin remarks, assuredly 
would never again attack a monkey in a troop. 
It is certain that associated animals have a feeling of 
love for each other which is not felt by adult and non- 
social animals. How far in most cases thev actually 
sympathise with each other’s pains and pleasures is 
more doubtful, especially with respect to the latter. 
Mr. Buxton, however, who had excellent means of 
observation, states that his macaws, which lived free in 
Norfolk, took “an extravagant interest” in a pair 
with a nest, and whenever the female left it, she was 
surrounded by a troop “screaming horrible accla- 
“ mations in her honour.” It is often difficult to judge 
whether animals have any feeling for each other's 
sufferings. Who can say what cows feel, when they 
surround and stare intently on a dying or dead 
companion? That animals sometimes are far from 
feeling any sympathy is too certain ; for they will expel 
a wounded animal from the herd, or gore or worry 
it to death. This is almost the blackest tact in natural 
9 ‘ Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ November, 1808, p. 382. 
