A terrified canary-bird has been seen not only to
tremble and to turn white about the base of the bill, but to faint;[11]
and I once caught a robin in a room, which fainted so completely,
that for a time I thought it dead.
[11] Dr. Darwin, `Zoonomia,' 1794, vol. i. p. 148.
Most of these symptoms are probably the direct result,
independently of habit, of the disturbed state of the sensorium;
but it is doubtful whether they ought to be wholly thus accounted for.
When an animal is alarmed it almost always stands motionless for a moment,
in order to collect its senses and to ascertain the source of danger,
and sometimes for the sake of escaping detection. But headlong flight
soon follows, with no husbanding of the strength as in fighting,
and the animal continues to fly as long as the danger lasts,
until utter prostration, with failing respiration and circulation,
with all the muscles quivering and profuse sweating, renders further
flight impossible. Hence it does not seem improbable that the principle
of associated habit may in part account for, or at least augment,
some of the above-named characteristic symptoms of extreme terror.
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