Deer and Antelope: Their Special Gifts
You have learned by this time that _every animal has some special
gift_, that is, he can do one thing better than most other animals.
The deer and the antelope have their special gifts.
First, there is their gift of _hearing_. I have already told you that
the wild buffaloes can hear a long way; but the deer and the antelope
can hear still farther.
Let us suppose that a tiger is trying to creep up to a deer through
the jungle, as quietly as he can. The tiger is still a long way off,
and quite hidden by the bushes, so the deer cannot _see_ him at all.
But the deer can _hear_ him coming, even if the tiger takes each step
very lightly. Why? Because the deer's ears are so sharp that he can
hear even a leaf rustling under the tiger's foot, a long way off. So
the deer can run away in good time.
To make him hear still better, the deer can turn or bend his ears to
the side from which the sound is coming. You have seen an ordinary
cow prick up her ears when she heard somebody coming; and many other
animals--even a dog--can do the same.
But the deer can do that best. The shape of his ear is like that of a
funnel, so as to _pour_ the sound into his ear, as it were. Then even
if there is only a single drop of sound, it gets right into his ear.
And by turning or bending his ear, the deer knows which way the sound
is coming. You also can tell which way a sound is coming, if it is
loud enough; but the deer can do that even when the sound is very
faint. That is very useful to him, as he then knows exactly _which
way_ a sneaking tiger is coming, and can run the _other way_.
I must now tell you that the tiger himself, tries to come so quietly
that the deer may not hear him at all; and to help him to do so, his
feet are padded with muscles, just like cushions. So it is a kind of
trial between the tiger and the deer as to which is the more clever.
If the tiger can come so quietly that the deer cannot hear him, then
the tiger is more clever than the deer. But if the deer can hear the
tiger, even if the tiger comes most quietly, then the deer is more
clever than the tiger.
That kind of trial between two different animals as to which is the
more clever, goes on in the jungle all the time: and _the more clever
one wins every time_. If the tiger is more clever than the deer, the
tiger eats the deer; but if the deer is more clever than the tiger,
the deer escapes being eaten. And that is true of all other animals.
In fact, one of the great wonders of the jungle is that the animal
which is _the fittest wins the oftenest_; and so he goes on living,
whatever may happen to the others.[1]
[Footnote 1: _To the Teacher._--Please give the class other examples
of the "Survival of the Fittest" among other creatures--birds,
insects, fish, etc.]
Now I come to the second special gift of the deer and the antelope. If
by any chance a deer cannot hear a sneaking tiger, he can still
_smell_ the tiger.
Most animals can smell their enemy a long way off, even if they do not
hear him or see him; but _the deer and the antelope can smell the
farthest_. Even if a sneaking tiger is so cunning that he stops in a
thicket and stands quite still for a minute, so that he does not make
any sound at all,--and so the deer cannot hear him,--even then the
deer can smell him when he is still a long way off.
I must tell you now that the tiger himself can smell the deer. But he
cannot do that very far off,--so the deer always smells him _first_!
Also, the tiger can hear the deer, if the deer happens to be moving.
But the tiger cannot hear quite so far as the deer can. So the deer
always hears him _first_!
But in one thing the tiger is better off than the deer: _the tiger can
see farther than the deer_. In the night most animals can see a
little, but the tiger can see a little better and farther than the
others. And in the daytime, if a deer were feeding in a very big level
field, and a tiger came to the field from the other side, the tiger
would see the deer before the deer could see him. Then the tiger would
come round to the nearest thicket, and try to creep up to the deer
from thicket to thicket.
_Each Animal has the Gift he Needs Most_
So, you understand, the deer can _hear_ farther and _smell_ farther;
but the tiger can _see_ farther.
And that is so because it is a wonderful rule in the jungle that _each
animal has the gift that he needs most_.
But can you think why the tiger _needs_ to see farther, and why the
deer _needs_ to hear farther and smell farther? I shall tell you.
The tiger is the catcher, and the deer is the one that is caught. So
the tiger tries to get to the deer, and the deer tries to run _from_
the tiger.
But to get to the deer, it would be no use to the tiger if he could
only smell or hear the deer, for then he would only know that the deer
was _somewhere_ near, but could not find the exact spot; and to catch
the deer the tiger must know exactly where the deer is. So the best
way for him to know that is to _see_ the deer.
But for the deer himself, all that he needs to know is that a tiger is
somewhere near. So it is quite enough for him to know from which side
the tiger is coming, by just smelling him or hearing him. Then the
deer can run the other way at once. He does not want to see the tiger
at all!
So, you understand, the tiger's best gift is to be able to see the
deer; and the deer's best gift is to be able to smell and hear the
tiger.
But then, you may ask, if the deer can always run away long before the
tiger can get at him, does a tiger never catch a deer?
Yes, a tiger does catch a deer once in a while, if the deer happens
to make a mistake! And the deer can make only one mistake like that in
his life, because after the first he gets eaten!
So, you may be sure, the deer tries very hard never to make even that
one mistake.
And what is that one mistake? It is to run straight into the jaws of
the tiger! It may just happen that when the deer hears the tiger
coming, he does not listen quite carefully, and so he does not know
which way the sound is coming. Then, in running away, the deer may
happen to go just the wrong way--and fall into the tiger's jaws.
Or else it may happen that the deer is so frightened that he loses his
head, as it were, and goes just any way--and by bad luck chooses the
wrong way, and falls into the tiger's jaws.
But I must tell you that, although the tiger tries very hard to eat
the deer, _the deer tries still harder not to be eaten!_ Why? Because
if the tiger does not catch the deer for to-day's dinner, he can still
catch some other animal for tomorrow's breakfast, even if he goes
hungry to-night. But if the deer once gets eaten, there is no
to-morrow for, him at all! The tiger is only trying _to get a meal_,
but the deer is trying _to save his life_. That is why the deer
nearly always gets away from the tiger--because he is trying harder
than the tiger.
So the tiger does not get deer to eat much oftener than most children
get roast turkey. The tiger lives mostly on pork, for the wild pigs of
the jungle are such careless animals, as I have told you before. Now
and again the tiger gets mutton also, for the wild sheep are silly
creatures, like other kinds of sheep. In the same way the tiger
sometimes catches a wild goat.
The tiger would really get deer to eat a little oftener than he
actually does if it were not that the deer has two other gifts by
which he can escape from the tiger at the last minute. Those two gifts
are his _quickness in getting started_, and his _speed in running_.
So, even if the deer makes a mistake and runs toward the tiger, he can
still escape from the tiger if he finds out his mistake in time.
For, as you saw at the midnight pool, the deer may be drinking
quietly, when he hears or smells a tiger. Then the deer can leap at
once and get away, before the tiger can leap. Or it may happen that
the deer is trying to escape from a tiger and has run to within
twenty yards of the tiger, when he finds out his mistake. Then the
deer can turn _at once_ and leap sideways to get out of the tiger's
reach. The deer is so quick that he can turn aside without stopping,
and keep on running.
Then after that, once he has turned away from the tiger, the tiger can
never catch him. For the deer can run ever so much faster than the
tiger.
In fact, the deer or the antelope is the fastest animal in the world,
except one other. About that other animal I shall tell you some
wonderful things in the next book. But among all animals I have told
you about in this book the deer is the fastest.
"But how do people know that the deer can run faster than other
animals?" you may ask. "Has anyone had a race between different
animals?"
Yes, some people did that in England a few years ago. They took the
fastest racehorse in the country, and ran a race between him and the
fastest greyhound; and the greyhound beat the horse in the race. Then
they took that greyhound, and ran a race between him and an English
deer; and the deer beat the greyhound in the race. So, you see, the
deer was faster than the greyhound, and the greyhound was faster than
the horse! So the deer was the fastest of the three.
And the deer that lives in the jungle is even faster than the English
deer. Why? Because the English deer lives in peaceful glades and
forests, and has no other animal trying to catch and eat him; so he
does not try to be as fast as he could be. But the deer that lives in
the jungle has to try very hard all the time to be as fast as he can
be, or else he would be eaten by the tiger! And, as you must know, _we
can do the best in anything when we try the hardest_.
So, all kinds of wild deer in the jungle have been trying their
hardest to run as fast as they can. And as their fathers and
grandfathers have been trying to do that, the wild deer to-day have
become the fastest runners among all the animals I have told you
about.