Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1875 — Birds Simulating Suffering—Animal Instinct. [ARTICLE]

Birds Simulating Suffering—Animal Instinct.

In walking along the side of a river with overhanging batiks I came suddenly on a wild duck (Anas Boschus), whose young were just out. Springing from under the bankriie fluttered out into the stream, with loud cries and with all the struggles to escape of a helplessly wounded bird. To simulate the effects of sufferings from disease, or from strong emotion, of from wounds upop the human frame, is a common necessity of the actor’s art, and it is not often really well done. The tricks of the theater are seldom natural, and'it is not without reason that “theatrical” has become a proverbial expression Jbr false and artificial representation of. the real it i os—o£- life-- -----It was,. - therefore, - with no small interest that on this, as on many other occasions, 1 watched the perfection of an art which Mrs. Siddons might have envied. The labored and half-convulsive flapping of the wings, the wriggling of the body, the straining of tlumrefcyand the whole expression of painful and abortive effort, ■were really admirable. When her struggleahad carried her a considerable and_s.he_ saw they produced no effect in tempting us to follow, she made resounding flaps upon the surface of the water to secure that attention to herself which it was the great object of the maneuver to attract. Then, rising suddenly in the air she made a great circle round us, and returning to the spot renewed her. endeavors as before. It was riot; however, necessary; for the separate instinct of the young in successful hiding effectually baffled all my attempts to discover them. If now we examine, in the light of our own reason, all the elements of knowledge or of intellectual perception upon which the instinct of the wild duck is founded, and all of which, as existing somewhere, it undoubtedly reflects, we shall soon see how various and extensive those elements of knowledge are. First, there is the knowledge that the cause of the alarm is a carnivorous animal. On this fundamental point no creature is ever deceived. The youngest chick knows a hawk, and the dreaded form fills it with instant terror. Next, there is the knowledge thatdogs and other carnivorous quadrupeds have the sense of smell, as an additional element of danger to the creatures on which they prey. Next, there is the knowledge that the dog, not being itself a flying animal, has sense enough not to attempt the pursuit oFprey which can avail itself of this sure and easy' method of escape. Next, there is the conclusion from all this knowledge that if the dog is to be induced to chase, it must be led to suppose that the power of flight has been somehow lost. And then there is the further conclusion that this can only be done by such an accurate imitation of a disabled bird as shall deceive the enemy into a belief in the possibility of capture. And lastly, there are all the powers of memory and the qualities of imagination which enable good acting to lawpeiformed. All this reasoning and all this knowledge is certainly involved in the action of the birdmother, just as certainly as reasoning and knowledge of a much profounder kind is involved in the structure or adjustment of the organic machinery by ■which and through which the action is itself performed.—Duke of Argyll, in the Contemporary Review.