The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-04-28

no experience of large serpents In In
dia there is at least one rat which goes
| in such fear of it's life from them that
! it blocks up its hole with stones when
| 'at home.'' as it is thought, to keep
them out.
The creatures which are said to be
the usual objects of fascination by
snakes are birds and monkeys. In this
selection common belief has probability
on its side, because both small birds
and monkeys are intensely emotional,
| quick and sensitive creatures. More
over, they have for all time been the
prey of tree climbing snakes. Mr. Kip
! lings Hunting of Kaa" puts the idea
| into dramatic form. There may be evil
dence that the python goes hunting.
Though if he does not, but remains, as
"Eha' says, quiet and waiting till he
can seize g. passing jackal or monkey, it
does not spoil the story. 1t is, however,
on record that a monkey has been
known to drop down in a dead faint
when suddenly shown a serpent; and
more than enc account represents a
brood of fledged young birds fiuttering
and apparently powerless to fly before
snake with the parent bird dashing
so close past its jaws that it is caught.
This can only be accounted for on the
same grounds as the impulse which
makes persons inclined to throw them
selves over precipices. 1t arises FROM
he nomentary breakdown of resolu-
tiCn in the face of an overwhelming
! danger or from the rebound of over
stretched precaution, which starts back
TO the furthest limits of adherence and
then PUSHES into the jaws of peril. But
the temporary paralysis of faculties is
| an instance of moral failure in what, up
| TIL then, has been a series of reasoned
acts All weaker creatures pay intense
attention to the appearance! of a natural
enemy. Their first impulse is to watch
! it most intently. Deer, hareS and BIRDS
ali do this. Concurrently. with this
w1tching impulse is that of standing
| absolutely still. In some cases this
develops into crouching, or sitting"
mntionless, so that the creature may,
While never taking its eye off its enc
! my, be at the same time invisible.
Paralysis of faculties often so far ec-
companies this attitude hat the crea-
| tire. in its intense apprehension of one
danger becomes oblivious of another. 4
mountain hare, for instance, watching
an eagle, has allowed itself to be pick
CO up by the hand.
The extra voltage" of fear engender-
| ed by the horror of the serpent would
| be sufficient, when exercised on the
nerves of highly sensitive creatures like
the smaller birds, so to strain the first
series of reasonable acts of watching,
immobility and crouching that the final
/ logical act, that of flight when discov-
erred. is impossible the will power hav-
ing broken down. The converse of this
feeling in the hunted may sometimes be
! seen in the hunter. Very we'll bred
pointers have SO elaborated the point,
Which was originally the pause to de-
ternline exactly where the bird or hare
was sitting, that they cannot be induced
| TO break it and move on to flush the
gar'e. 1t is not difficult to guess why
some dangerous animals induce this
parelyzing fear in their prey, while 9TH
ers do not 1t varies largely in proper
ton to the deadly nature of the crea-
ture, and its weapons or mode of pur-
suit, The cat is a more formidable ami
nal than the stoat But a rabbit OF
| mare SHOWS no more than ordinary fear
OF the cat The stoat, on the contrary
often "fascinates," or, rather, paralyzes
the mental faculties of the rabbit, OF
even OF the courageous rat. 1t does
ont always happen, but instances are sc
common that we need not quote them.
| A rabbit hunted by a stoat will sit down
ans squeak till the stoat leisu-ely kills
it, and rat will often make no fight
1T all against the same enemy, though