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ANIMALS PRESENTIMENTS OF DANGER Some interesting letters have been appearing in the Daily Mail upon the subject of the perplexing attitude of animals toward imminent death, which sometimes they will fear, while at others they will be perfectly indifferent to it. Mr. Walter Winans, for example, gives several instances: "I have known a. dog beg not to be taken on a railway journey, when usually he used to dance about with delight when he saw these preparations being made. On the occasion on which he exhibited distress he slipped off the platform, was run over and killed. I have known a horse which was a free jumper refuse obstinately a small fence, and when his rider forced him over it the horse broke his back. A bullfinch not a pet, but merely one of a cageful of birds dropped down screaming; I took him out, and so long as he lay in my hand he was quite quiet, but he screamed if I attempted to put liim back on some cotton wool. He lay in my hand for a quarter of an hour and died quite quietly. On the other hand, I have seen through the telescope wounded deer, too hard hit to be able to move away, begin to graze quietly. Of course, this was in cases where it was not possible immediately to kill them. I have had a horse refuse to pass under a tree under which lie had passed every day for years. It was a perfectly calm day. I drove him around the tree and as I did so a big branch fell upon exactly the spot on which he would have been if I had not let the horse go round." In connection with the instance of the wounded deer, it may be remembered that in the Derby of 1899 Holocaust, ridden by Sloan, broke his leg. Sloan wrote that the animal was a horrible sight with his leg broken off short; in fact, the stump was sticking jn the ground. When his rider dismounted the horse began munching the grass. Horse and Hound.
