CHIVALRY AMONG ANIMALS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 53, 3 March 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHIVALRY AMONG ANIMALS.

Dr. Woods HutehinSon contributes to the " Contemporary Review *' of December a very interesting paper, entitled "Animal Chivalry." He Maintains that animals have a very distinct and high sense of tlnty, and a keen sense of shame at failure to live tip to it. In this paper he describes the attitude of animals towards the yoimg or the defenceless females of their own or other species, | towards Indies and towards men. He j says it is only a very morose and illtempered dog who will seriously attack young kittens, although they will worry every full-grown cat without mercy, The custom of defending younger or weaker members of their own species Is widely spread throughout the animal kingdom. Catch a little pig, and the moment its squeal of distress is heard the whole herd of fifty or sixty full-grown pigs will charge down upon you, bristles up,' tusks gnashing, and fierce barking War-cry ringing. If you drop the I little pig and it ceases to squeal, the ; herd will stop, suddenly stare about them iti a dazed and puzzled manner, . and then work off their excitement i by" fighting1 each other. On the plains I the cry of the calf will bring every 'horned animal within three-quarters lof a mile down upon you fighting mad. Animals, says Dr. Hutehinson, have never yet succeeded in nbsollutely steeling their heart against the ! cry of infantile distress; man alone I has reached this pinnacle of virtue. !As for politeness to ladies, animals ; carry this to an extraordinary ex- | tent. Dr. Hutchinson says the same | kind of thing is noticed among horses, i Savage farm-horses that cannot be worked alongside of any other horse, on account of' theil' teinpei', may safely be yoked ; alongside -of a .mare. Mares, on the other hand, will attack either horse or mare " without the slightest hesitation, but no serious or ! retaliatory resistance is offered by i the horse.