THE STRANGE INSTINCTS OF CATTLE.
My purpose in this paper is to discuss a group of
curious and useless emotional instincts of social
animals, which have not yet been properly explained.
Excepting two of the number, placed first and last
in the list, they are not related in their origin;
consequently they are here grouped together arbitrarily,
only for the reason that we are very familiar with
them on account of their survival in our domestic animals,
and because they are, as I have said, useless; also
because they resemble each other, among the passions
and actions of the lower animals, in their effect
on our minds. This is in all cases unpleasant,
and sometimes exceedingly painful, as when species
that rank next to ourselves in their developed intelligence
and organized societies, such as elephants, monkeys,
dogs, and cattle, are seen under the domination of
impulses, in some cases resembling insanity, and in
others simulating the darkest passions of man.
These instincts are:—
(1) The excitement caused by the smell of blood, noticeable
in horses and cattle among our domestic animals, and
varying greatly in degree, from an emotion so slight
as to be scarcely perceptible to the greatest extremes
of rage or terror.
(2) The angry excitement roused in some animals when
a scarlet or bright-red cloth is shown to them.
So well known is this apparently insane instinct in
our cattle that it has given rise to a proverb and
metaphor familiar in a variety of forms to everyone.
(3) The persecution of a sick or weakly animal by
its companions.
(4) The sudden deadly fury that seizes on the herd
or family at the sight of a companion in extreme distress.
Herbivorous mammals at such times will trample and
gore the distressed one to death. In the case
of wolves, and other savage-tempered carnivorous species,
the distressed fellow is frequently torn to pieces
and devoured on the spot.
To take the first two together. When we consider
that blood is red; that the smell of it is, or may
be, or has been, associated with that vivid hue in
the animal’s mind; that blood, seen and smelt
is, or has been, associated with the sight of wounds
and with cries of pain and rage or terror from the
wounded or captive animal, there appears at first sight
to be some reason for connecting these two instinctive
passions as having the same origin—namely,
terror and rage caused by the sight of a member of
the herd struck down and bleeding, or struggling for
life in the grasp of an enemy. I do not mean
to say that such an image is actually present in the
animal’s mind, but that the inherited or instinctive
passion is one in kind and in its working with the
passion of the animal when experience and reason were
its guides.
But the more I consider the point the more am I inclined
to regard these two instincts as separate in their
origin, although I retain the belief that cattle and
horses and several wild animals are violently excited
by the smell of blood for the reason just given—namely,
their inherited memory associates the smell of blood
with the presence among them of some powerful enemy
that threatens their life. To this point I shall
return when dealing with the last and most painful
of the instincts I am considering.
