Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals

CHAP. V. RUMINANTS.

The actions of a horse when much startled are highly
expressive. One day my horse was much frightened
at a drilling machine, covered by a tarpaulin, and lying
on an open field. He raised his head so high, that his
neck became almost perpendicular; and this he did from
habit, for the machine lay on a slope below, and could
not have been seen with more distinctness through the
raising of the head; nor if any sound had proceeded
from it, could the sound have been more distinctly heard.
I-Iis eyes and ears were directed intently forwards; and I
could feel through the saddle the palpitations of his
lieart. With red dilated nostrils he snorted violently,
and whirling round, would have dashed off at full speed,
had I not prevented him. The distension of the nostrils
is not for the sake of scenting the source of .danger, for
"when a horse smells carefully at any object and is not
alarmed, he does not dilate his nostrils. Owing to the
presence of a valve in the throat, a horse when panting
does not breathe through his open mouth, but through
liis nostrils; and these consequently have become en-
tlowed with great powers of expansion. This expansion
of the nostrils, as well as the snorting, and the palpita-
tions of the heart, are actions which have become firmly
associated during a long series of generations with the
emotion of terror; for terror has habitually led the horse
to the most violent exertion in dashing away at full speed
from the cause of danger.

Ruminants.—Cattle and sheep are remarkable from
displaying in so slight a degree their emotions or sen-
sations, excepting that of extreme pain. A bull when
enraged exhibits his rage only by the manner in which
lie holds his lowered head, with distended nostrils, and
"by bellowing. He also often paws the ground; but
this pawing seems quite different from that of an im-