This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ...of mortality there must be added a vast number of wild animals which escape constitutional or contagious disorders, and die of lingering starvation, hastened by exposure. This fact in a great degree justifies the domestication and appropriation of animals to the service of civilized man, who in his dealings ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ...of mortality there must be added a vast number of wild animals which escape constitutional or contagious disorders, and die of lingering starvation, hastened by exposure. This fact in a great degree justifies the domestication and appropriation of animals to the service of civilized man, who in his dealings with their last years shows an ever-increasing tendency to rectify this aberrant conclusion set by Nature to animal life. XXII.--ANIMALS' ILLUSIONS A Curious instance of animal illusion was seen on the Thames last summer by those on their way to Henley by river. A cock swan was fighting his own reflection seen in the window of a partly-sunken house-boat, which acted as a looking-glass. He had been doing battle for some time in defence, as he supposed, of his wife and family, who were grouped together close by, and had apparently begun to have some misgivings as to whether the enemy were real or not, for at intervals he desisted from the attack, and tapped the frame of the window all round with his bill. Birds are perhaps more commonly the victims of illusions than other animals, their stupidity about their eggs being quite remarkable. Recently, for instance, a hen got into the pavilion of a ladies' golf-club, and began to sit in a corner on a golf-ball, for which it made a nest with a couple of pocket-handkerchiefs. But many quadrupeds are not only deceived for the moment by reflections, shadows and such unrealities, but often seem victims to illusions largely developed by the imagination. The horse, for instance, is one of the bravest of animals when face to face with dangers which it can understand, such as the charge of an elephant, or a wild boar at bay. Yet the courageous and devoted horse, so steadfast against the dangers he knows, is a...
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Add this copy of Animals of to-Day, Their Life and Conversation to cart. $70.74, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Palala Press.