The morning news., 1892-03-17
FEAR OF BEASTS.
Animals Quite as Often Afraid or
Man as Man OF Tnsm.
From the London Spectator.

AulLuaiS QOit8 as OIten AFRAID OF
Man as Man OF Tnsm.
From the London Spectator.
That man is. generally speaking from the
animals point OF view, an object Of fear,
hostility or rapine, is to-day most uufortun-
ately true. But whether this is their nat
ural relation, and not one Induced. and
capable perhaps of change, is by no means
certain. Savage man. who has generally
been first in contact with animals, is usually
a hunter. and therefore an object OF dislike
20 the other hunting animals, and OF dread
70 the hunted. But civilized man,
with his supply OF bread and
beef. is not necessarily a hunter; and
it is just conceivable that he might
be content TO leave the animals In a newly
discovered country uumolested. and conde-
scend, when not better employed, to watch
their attitude toward himself. The impossi-
BILE island in 1.-The Swiss Family Robinson, -
in which half the animals of two hemis>
pheres were collected, would be an ideal
place for such an experiment. But unfort-
unately, uninhabited islands seldom contain
more than few species. and those gener-
ally birds or sea beasts; and in newly dis
covered game regions savage man has gen.
orally been before us with his arrows, spears
and pitfalls. Some instances of the
first contact of animals with man
have, however. been preserved
In the accounts Of the early
voyages collected by Hakluyt
aud others, though the hungry navigators
we're generally more intent on victualing
their ships with the unsuspecting beasts
and birds, or on noting those which would
be useful commodities for "trafficke" than
In cultivating friendly relations with the
animal inhabitants OF the newly discovered
islands. Thus, we read that near New
II nd kIav-a .1e. Is
sandy-red, but with the multitudss of birds
upon them they look white. The birds sit
there as thick as stones lie in a paved
street. The greatest Of the islands Is
about mile in compass. The second
is a little less The third is a very
little one, like small rock. At the second
of these islands there lay on the shore
in the sunshine about thirty or forty
sea oxen or morses, which, when
our boat came near them, pre-
sently made into the sea aud
swan after the boat" Curiosity, not fear
or hostility, was, then the emotion reused
in the sea oxen by the first sight of man.
The birds, whales and waIruses In the War
gate sea. and near Jan Mayens land, we're
no less tame, and the sea lions in the South
ern Pacific. the birds that Barents first dis
turbed in Novaya Zembla, and even the
anteiopes which the early explorers en-
countered In the least inhabited parts Of
Central South Africa, seem all TO have re-
garded the newly discovered creature, man,
with interest and without fear. Sir Samuel
Baker, in his "Wild Beasts and Their
Ways" remarks on the curious and inexpli-
cable fact that certain animals and birds
exhibit peculiar sbyness of human beings,
although they are only exposed to the
same conditions as others, which are more
bold" He instances the wildness of
the ourlew and the golden plover,
and contrasts it with the tameness
of swallows and wagtails. The reason does
not seem far to seek. The first are con-
stantly sought for food, the latter are left
undisturbed. Perhaps the best instance OF
such a contrast is that of the hawfinch and
the orossbill, birds of closely allied form and
appearance. The hawfinch, which Is prob
ably the shyest Of English small birds,
seems to have acquired deep mistrust
of man. But the crossbilIs, on rare oc-
casion when they descend from the un-
Inhabited forests of the north into our
Scotch or English woods, are absolutely
without fear or mistrust of human beings,
wnom they see very probably for the first
time. When animals do show fear on first
acquaintance IL is probably due not 90 any
spontaneous dread Of man as man, but be-
cause they mistake him for something else.
''Nearly all animals" says Sir Samuel
Baker, "have some natural enemy
which keeps them on the alert and makes
them suspicious Of all strange objects and
sounds