Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/223

Rh it, and are constantly reminded of it, yet we live hopefully, peacefully, with an easy, often thoughtless confidence that we and ours are immune, will escape the dangers which surround us. These other creatures, their methods of living and their actions moulded by heredity and the manifold forces of environment, may exist in the same careless, trustful way. Were they not keen of sight for prey, swift to pursue and strike, they would starve; were they not keen to sight pursuer, smart and active so as to escape, they would be slain. When they are hunting, feeding, playing, or paying court, their every action suggests the real enjoyment of perfected power. May we not reasonably believe that they do enjoy life, and that the other actions, suggestive of anxiety or fear, are merely the outcome of heredity, the inborn necessity of "keeping the eyes skinned"? We may even go further, and believe that their wiles to escape from their enemies, either by speed or concealment, are as reflex as our effort to whisk away the blood-sucking gnat. Unconsciously they see, hear, or scent danger, and without thought act in the promptest and most effective way to avoid it. But the hand failed to localise the goat, and wing or limb are not infallible; when the failure comes there is but one inevitable result—annihilation.