Chapter 11

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.