!THOUGH the military critics have had a great deal to
say lately on the uselessness of " passive defence," A has always been in favour with a large percentage of the animal world, from mammals downwards. Those which adopt it do not make a great figure, it is true; but they manage to keep their place in the chain of existence, while their moral weight in embellishing the fables and folk- lore of all nations and languages ought to win for them more consideration than it has so far done. The greater number of thein divide their time between passive endurance in the winter, when they 'curl up and go to sleep to avoid starvation, and passive resistance, if other animals take advantage of them when' they awake in the spring and summer. There are also certain of them which belong to the criminal or inalingering classes, and "sham dead" or endure all kinds Of torments rather than face the situation to which fate or their own misdeeds have led them. Some go even further, and commit instant suicide when they consider that their Social position is likely to be compromised. As we have no means or knowing precisely what is passing through their minds, we can only infer that this is so. But, judging from-the behaviour of a certain star-fish, it can only be sur- mised that it• is a point of honour with them never to be "collected," and that each and every one of the race makes it its pride and boast to assert that not one of its family has ever been seen in a bottle on a museum shelf. They are known as the "brittle stars," being the family in question known as luidia fragilissima. When taken from the water it instantly throws off its legs, or stars, and also its stomach. One baffled collector who thought that he had succeeded in coaxing a specimen into a pail had the mortification of seeing it dismember itself at the last moment, and avers that the eye, which is placed at the end of a limb, gave a perceptible wink as he picked up the fragment.
' "Uncle Remus" has laid before us the policy of "Brer Terrapin" in great detail. But for some reason, possibly because he did not live in the same " set " as Brer Rabbit and his friends, he has told us very little of Bret- 'Possum. The old negro tales of the -South were much taken up with the cunning of this animal, and especially with its success in " shamming dead " when detected in crime. The common "Virginian" opossum, which is very generally found over the Eastern area of the United States, is an unpleasant-looking animal, as large as a cat, and with a tail like a rat's. It is not particular as to what it feeds upon, whether vegetable or animal, but has a particular weak- ness for chicken. It is also eaten itself, and is, or was, considered rather a delicacy than otherwise. When caught by dogs, trapped, or intercepted either in the open or up a tree (in the latter case it sometimes drops to the ground as if shot), the creature is an adept at counterfeiting death. "Playing 'possum" for a time passed into common phrase for shamming. Nor was the part lightly dropped. An unfortunate opossum, when caught by an angry farmer in his hen-roost, was often kicked and beaten till it seemed not to have a whole bone in its body ; yet it kept up the appearance or reality of a trance, and often managed to drag itself away after being left for dead. Another of the American opossums (Didelphys Azarae), named after the old Spanish naturalist, is a black-and-white animal, slow and awkward on the South American pampas, and evidently mean-fli,nafure fo he adioreal. A is easily over- taken on the ground, and always takes refuge- in this meek form of passive resistance.
The hedgehog, the porcupine, the Australian echidnas, and some of the armadillos do the same, but are aided either by armour, or by a " barbed wire" arrangement of spines. As porcupines are esteemed excellent to eat by human beings (the market price of the flesh is regularly quoted in parts of Spain), and hedgehogs are eaten by gipsies, and echidnas by " black fellows," it must be concluded that they are much in demand among carnivorous animals. Yet the humble porcupine manages to baffle the leopard and the lion, while the hedgehog, though the fox is credited with killing its only falls a victim, so far as the present writer can judge, to the stoat, for the hedgehog-skins occasionally found turned inside out in the meadows are neatly reproduced when a dead hedgehog is given to ferrets. A hedgehog has the most delicate sensibility about the amount of passive resistance it needs to exert. It curls itself up by a frown—that is, by muscles like those which produce a frown—and it frowns severely or gently according to circumstances. If it is poked hard, it "sighs" itself tighter. If really hurt, it frowns into a tight ball. The prickles can be erected in a measure, though as they point all ways this is not needed. They are as sharp as needles. We have only known one dog, a large black-and- white setter, which would deliberately bite a hedgehog till it killed it. But this dog was quite mad, and shared some of the anaesthesia common to certain lunatics. The armadillos are great diggers, and, like rabbits, enjoy the protection of holes. But if surprised the three-banded armadillo can roll itself into a completely armoured ball. "The wedge- shaped head and wedge-shaped tail fit into the deeply cut shell side by side," and the little passive resister is' proof against a puma's paw.
Mr. W. H. Hudson describes the death-feigning habits of a small South American fox common on the pampas. • If caught in a trap or overtaken in the open, it instantly collapses as if dead, and to all appearance is dead. " The deception is so well carried out that dogs are constantly taken in by it, and any one not previously acquainted with this clever trickery of nature would at once pronounce the creature dead, and worthy of some praise for having periehed in so
brave a spirit When one withdraws a little way from a feigning fox, and watches him very attentively, a slight opening of the eye may be detected. 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 distance. Yet I have seen gauchos, who are very cruel, practise the most barbarous experiments upon a captive fox without being able to rouse it into exhibiting any signs of life." The author thinks that fear induces a swoon in these foxes, which really acts as an anaesthetic. " The swoon some- times takes place before the animal has been touched, and even when the cause of terror is at a considerable distance. I was once riding with a gaucho, when we saw, on the open level ground in front of 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 that he bad seen such a thing, lashed it vigorously with his whip for some moments without producing the slightest effect."
A case, probably not easily matched because the cir- cumstances were unusual, occurred several years ago in which an English fox " played 'possum " to some extent. It was put out of a fence, in a non-hunting county, by some farmers who were coursing with a couple of greyhounds loose. The dogs gave chase, caught the fox, bit it severely, and flung it up in the air. It lay as if dead; and appeared to• be dead. But after the farmers had come up, and the dogs let it alone, and were taken away, the fox gradually " came to itself," got up, looked round, and slipped off into the hedge, apparently none the worse. This same fox had been coursed once before, and had bitten a small greyhound badly ; apparently it judged, quite correctly, that passive resistance paid better.
Dogs are quite aware of the moral effect which it ptoduces. When told to go away or go home, they will lie down meekly
and humbly at your feet, with their heads down and their tails tucked in, inviting you to beat them, or kick them, or proffer any other wicked violence, with the meek assurance that you may do so if only they can have their own way. "Please ill- treat me, if you have the heart to do so," is labelled over every part of their unresisting bodies. Puppies are just as good at this as any hardened veteran. The scarabaeus beetles, most of the " woolly " caterpillars, some of which have poisonous hairs on their backs and are " urchins " of a sort, and very many spiders adopt the same unassuming tactics with marked success. Even the humble wood-louse does the same, rolling itself into a ball with baffling completeness. Evidently the knowledge that, on the whole, passive resistance pays remarkably well in the battle of life is very widely diffused and dates from immemorial antiquity. It provokes neither pursuit nor retaliation. Further—and this is a very important fact in regard to persecution, both by animals and men—it offers no sport. In the whole animal world, if anything runs away, there is always found something which will run after it. The humble badger, which is so wicked as to defend itself when attacked, is found to be " useful"—for baiting. It is the same in all spheres of animal life., At Ottery, an ancient Devonshire grammar school, the youthful sons of sporting West Country squires, desperately hard, up for amusement, discovered a species of wood-lice that did not curl up, but ran. With ancient and inbred intelligence, they saw their way to using them. In the 1,‘ cob" wall of the playground, in the boles made in spring by mason bees, dwelt spiders of a gross habit of body. The boys made small spring guns, carrying one shot at a time. They then caught the running wood-lice and used them as ferrets. The spiders rushed out to seize them, and were slain by the shot-guns. Had either the spiders or the wood-lice stuck to non-resistance, they would never have provoked the sporting instincts which led to their joint destruction.
Previous page
