The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-25
ANIMAL INSTINCT
 IN LAYING DOWN Have Great Trust In Entire Im-
 mobility STRANGE ANIMAL HABITS Almost All Beasts and Birds Rely On Stiffness To Evade Danger From an Approaching Enemy.
 Some Incidents.
STRANGE ANIMAL HABITS

E. D. Cunning in the Saturday Review.
 Is there a wild beast or bird that taken by surprise, will not seek safety in stand ing or sitting perfectly still? They do it, of every kind and size from the bison to the squirrel. from the ostrich to the wren; and we have it in the action, or inaction, of certain snakes. Let any woodland creature discover that the enemy, man, is within such distance that flight without revealing it's presence is impossible, and it becomes a statue depending upon rigid immobility to escape notice. The eff cacy of this is extraordinary under ordi- nary favorable circumstances I have stood within 20 yards of sambhur stag in dense jungle utterly unable to see the antlers to which a native follower point ed with wealth of gesticulation, and until speech broke the spell and the animal betrayed his whereabouts by turning to run away. leopard "drowsing' on the limb of a tree almost overhanging the sandy path on which human footsteps were inaudible even to his ears, slowly crouched a little closer to his perch and remained stonestill, eyeing us until the
  as the better part The bison, when the first alarm is close at hand, stands like @ statue, muzzle thrust out till he as- certains the direction whence danger threatens It would seem as though every wild animal, whatever it's bulk were perfectly conscious of the exact ness with which it and Its surroundings harmonize, and knew that movement would betray.
 It is curious to notice how this instinct operates under conditions so unfavorable to concealment that even the lowest in- telligence might recognize it's futlity. The rabbit routed out of its retreat in the undergrowth by a dog, and coming sud- denly upon man, will crouch on the open patch and remain still as long as the man has patience to remain still also. One of the most curious examples of con- fidence in immobility that ever came un- der my notice was in a wood in Nor way; wandering over the deep tussocks, which deadened footfall, I came upon squirrel busy with a fir cone on a stump. I was within few paces of him hefore he discovered me. and he sprang into the nearest tree. a young pine, five feet high or thereabout.
 There was no other refuge near save two trees between us, and the squirrel decided that safety lay in stiffness; he sat upright on twig, one forepaw clasping the main stem. the other against his breast his head turned to face me; and in this posture he remained as I advanced to see how close he would suf- fer me to approach. When six feet Gas measured afterward) separated us stopped. The squirrel remained abso- lutely still, his eyes fixed on me; my hands were behind and I found my pulse. It was at about the 250th beat or well over three minutes, that the seance was closed by an untimely sneeze; this startled the squirrel and he leaped to the ground to find a safer retreat in a distant fir. It was impossible that the little creature should have a sense of concealment; the tree was poor and scraggy thing, stem and three twigs; and there was not twig of the senderest between the squir- rel's person and my own. It was obvious that he relied upon immobility for his safety, and. unless he timed his winks to coincide with mine, he never stirred an eyelid.
 No animal depends more frequently or more successfully upon stiffness in danger than the hare. Approach hare in her form, as you may do, and she prefers immobility to flight A hare has been known to lie still while a whole pack of harriers passed her place of concealment; she only moved when one of the hounds actually put his foot on her. Reliance upon immobility reaches its height, as we might expect in.those creatures which | most closely resemble their habitat; the pangolin suggests itself as striking ex- ample. Clinging with it's hind feet to the tree trunk and supported by the pres | sure of it's tail, it may s-fely rely on be- ing mistaken for the broken stump of a branch it takes as its model.
 Birds adopt a somewI-..t similar meth l cd when taken by surprise, more par | ticularly hen-birds on the nest; but hers we have reason in that the depth of the