Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals

CHAP. IV. Iff ANIMALS. 97

a man to death in the United States, is described as first
brandishing his antlers, squealing with rage and stamp-
ing on the ground; " at length his hair was seen to rise
and stand on end/' and then he plunged forward to the
attack.11 The hair likewise becomes erect on goats, and,
as I hear from Mr. Blyth, on some Indian antelopes. I
have seen it erected on the hairy Ant-eater; and on the
Agouti, one of the Eodents. A female Bat,12 which
reared her young under confinement, when any one
looked into the cage " erected "the fur on her back, and
bit viciously at intruding fingers."

Birds belonging to all the chief Orders ruffle their
feathers when angry or frightened. Every one must
have seen two cocks, even quite young birds, preparing
to fight with erected neck-hackles; nor can these feath-
ers when erected serve as a means of defence, for cock-
fighters have found by experience that it is advantageous
to trim them. The male Ruff (Machetes pugnax) like-
wise erects its collar of feathers when fighting. When
a dog approaches a common hen with her chickens, she
spreads out her wings, raises her tail, ruffles all her feath-
ers, and looking as ferocious as possible, clashes at the
intruder. The tail is not always held in exactly the same
position; it is sometimes so much erected, that the cen-
tral feathers, as in the accompanying drawing, almost
touch the back. Swans, when angered, likewise raise
their wings and tail, and erect their feathers. They open
their beaks, and make by paddling little rapid starts for-
wards, against any one who approaches the water's edge
too closely. Tropic birds 13 when disturbed on their nests

11 The Hon. J. Caton, Ottawa Acad. of Nat. Sciences,
May, 18(58, pp. 36, 40. For the Gapra JBgayrus, ' Land and
Water/ 1867, p. 37.

12 ' Land and Water,' July 20, 1867, p. 659.

18 Phaeton rubrivauda: * ibis,1 vol. iii. 1861, p. 180.