possibly attract them to us by others, if they were not already apprized of
our general malevolence towards them. Mr. Gmelin, Professor at Petersburg,
assures us, that in his journey into Siberia, undertaken by order of the
Empress of Russia, he saw foxes, that expressed no fear of himself or
companions, but permitted him to come quite near them, having never seen
the human creature before. And Mr. Bongainville relates, that at his
arrival at the Malouine, or Falkland's Islands, which were not inhabited by
men, all the animals came about himself and his people; the fowls settling
upon their heads and shoulders, and the quadrupeds running about their
feet. From the difficulty of acquiring the confidence of old animals, and
the ease of taming young ones, it appears that the fear, they all conceive
at the sight of mankind, is an acquired article of knowledge.

This knowledge is more nicely understood by rooks, who are formed into
societies, and build, as it were, cities over our heads; they evidently
distinguish, that the danger is greater when a man is armed with a gun.
Every one has seen this, who in the spring of the year has walked under a
rookery with a gun in his hand: the inhabitants of the trees rise on their
wings, and scream to the unfledged young to shrink into their nests from
the sight of the enemy. The vulgar observing this circumstance so uniformly
to occur, assert that rooks can smell gun-powder.

The fieldfares, (turdus pilarus) which breed in Norway, and come hither in
the cold season for our winter berries; as they are associated in flocks,
and are in a foreign country, have evident marks of keeping a kind of
watch, to remark and announce the appearance of danger. On approaching a
tree, that is covered with them, they continue fearless till one at the
extremity of the bush rising on his wings gives a loud and peculiar note of
alarm, when they all immediately fly, except one other, who continues till
you approach still nearer, to certify as it were the reality of the danger,