would at once pronounce the creature dead, and worthy
of some praise for having perished in so brave a spirit.
Now, when in this condition of feigning death, I am
quite sure that the animal does not altogether lose
consciousness. It is exceedingly difficult to
discover any evidence of life in the opossum; but
when one withdraws a little way from the feigning
fox, and watches him very attentively, a slight opening
of the eye may be detected; and, finally, when left
to himself, he does not recover and start up like
an animal that has been stunned, but slowly and cautiously
raises his head first, and only gets up when his foes
are at a safe distance. Yet I have seen gauchos,
who are very cruel to animals, practise the most barbarous
experiments on a captive fox without being able to
rouse it into exhibiting any sign of life. This
has greatly puzzled me, since, if death-feigning is
simply a cunning habit, the animal could not suffer
itself to be mutilated without wincing. I can
only believe that the fox, though not insensible,
as its behaviour on being left to itself appears to
prove, yet has its body thrown by extreme terror into
that benumbed condition which simulates death, and
during which it is unable to feel the tortures practised
on it.
The swoon sometimes actually takes place before the
animal has been touched, and even when the exciting
cause is at a considerable distance. I was once
riding with a gaucho, when we saw, on the open level
ground before us, a fox, not yet fully grown, standing
still and watching our approach. All at once
it dropped, and when we came up to the spot it was
lying stretched out, with eyes closed, and apparently
dead. Before passing on my companion, who said
it was not the first time he had seen such a thing,
lashed it vigorously with his whip for some moments,
but without producing the slightest effect.
The death-feigning instinct is possessed in a very
marked degree by the spotted tinamou or common partridge
of the pampas (Nothura maculosa). When captured,
after a few violent struggles to escape, it drops its
head, gasps two or three times, and to all appearances
dies. If, when you have seen this, you release
your hold, the eyes open instantly, and, with startling
suddenness and a noise of wings, it is up and away,
and beyond your reach for ever. Possibly, while
your grasp is on the bird it does actually become
insensible, though its recovery from that condition
is almost instantaneous. Birds when captured do
sometimes die in the hand, purely from terror.
The tinamou is excessively timid, and sometimes when
birds of this species are chased—for gaucho
boys frequently run them down on horseback—and
when they find no burrows or thickets to escape into,
they actually drop down dead on the plain. Probably,
when they feign death in their captor’s hand,
they are in reality very near to death.
CHAPTER XVI.
HUMMING-BIRDS.
Copyrights
The Naturalist in La Plata from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
