nd deer can escape by
simply exerting their maximum rapidity, it is not always thus, and
certain species exercise in flight perfected methods appropriate to
circumstances, and so raise this method of defence to an art.

Of all animals the Ape most skilfully directs his flight. There is no
question that in his intelligence we may find every rudiment of our
own; but of all his qualities none more nearly approximates him to us
than his courage. There are no animals, not even the great beasts of
prey, who are so brave as Man and the Ape, and who are capable of so
much presence of mind. It is perhaps this bravery which, joined to his
sociability, has most contributed to assure the supremacy of the one.
As to the other, the road has been barred to him by his better-endowed
cousin; he is disappearing before Man, and not before nature or other
animals. In thinly-inhabited regions he is still the king. It is
generally considered that the Lion is the incarnation of courage, but
he is the strongest and the best armed; there is none before whom he
need tremble. In captivity he allows himself to be struck by the
tamer, which the most miserable ape would never suffer. The Lion will
struggle with extreme energy without calculating the difference of
strength between his opponent and himself, and will resist as long as
he is able to move. The Ape directs all his courage and presence of
mind to order his flight when he has recognised a danger that is
insurmountable. He does not act like those infatuated beasts who lose
their head and rush away trembling, in their precipitation paralysing
a great part of their resources. A band of apes in flight utilises all
obstacles that can be interposed between themselves and the pursuer;
they retire without excessive haste and take advantage of the first
shelter met with; a female never abandons her young, and if a young
one remains behind, and is in danger of being taken, the old males of
the troop go back boldly to save it at the peril of their lives. In
this connection many heroic facts have been narrated. This animal has
too frequently been judged by comparison with ourselves; he has been
regarded as a human caricature and covered with ridicule. We obtain a
very much higher idea of him if we compare him with other animals.
Always and everywhere there has been a prejudiced insistence on his
defects; we perceive them so easily because they are an exaggeration
of our own; but he also possesses quali