share the emotion of its parent
in the presence of a trap. It is very important to the wild creatures
that they have a quick apprehension of danger, and as a matter of fact
they have. One wild and suspicious duck in a flock will often defeat
the best laid plans of the duck-hunter. Its suspicions are quickly
communicated to all its fellows: not through any conscious effort on
its part to do so, but through the law of natural contagion above
referred to. Where any bird or beast is much hunted, fear seems to be
in the air, and their fellows come to be conscious of the danger which
they have not experienced.

What an animal lacks in wit it makes up in caution. Fear is a good
thing for the wild creatures to have in superabundance. It often saves
them from real danger. But how undiscriminating it is! It is said
that an iron hoop or wagon-tire placed around a setting hen in the
woods will protect her from the foxes.

Animals are afraid on general principles. Anything new and strange
excites their suspicions. In a herd of animals, cattle, or horses,
fear quickly becomes a panic and rages like a conflagration. Cattlemen
in the West found that any little thing at night might kindle the
spark in their herds and sweep the whole mass away in a furious
stampede. Each animal excites every other, and the multiplied fear of
the herd is something terrible. Panics among men are not much
different.

In a discussion like the present one, let us use words in their strict
logical sense, if possible. Most of the current misconceptions in
natural history, as in other matters, arise from a loose and careless
use of words. One says teach and train and instruct, when the facts
point to instinctive imitation or unconscious communication.

That the young of all kinds thrive better and develop more rapidly
under the care of their parents than when deprived of that care is
obvious enough. It would be strange if it were not so. Nothing can
quite fill the place of the mother with either man or bird or beast.
The mother provides and protects. The young quickly learn of her
through the natural instinct of imitation. They share her fears, they
follow in her footsteps, they look to her for protection; it is the
order of nature. They are not trained in the way they should go, as a
child is by its human parents--they are not trained at all; but their
natural instincts doubtless act more promptly and surely with the
mother than without her. That a young