ever-diminishing circle; the rotation of the stoat; the fixity of its
gaze; the liberation of the rabbit the moment the stoat was disturbed;
and the instant recovery of its faculties on the breaking of the
spell;--all these are circumstances of the highest interest in a case
avouched by so good a naturalist as Mr Bond.

Mr J. H. Gurney reports the account of a respectable gamekeeper, who,
being much annoyed by the nightly visits of a fox to the poultry, could
not imagine how Reynard managed to effect his purpose, as they roosted
on a large spreading oak. One morning, however, just as day was dawning,
he heard a great noise among the poultry, and, looking out of the
window, saw a fox running round and round under the place where they
sat, and soon observed that the fowls began to fall from the tree in
great confusion. The fox immediately seized his victim, and the mystery
was so far solved. A day or two afterwards the fox, a very large male,
was killed in an adjoining paddock, and no further assaults were made
upon the poultry.

In this case the result was possibly effected by vertigo; the birds,
bewildered and amazed in the dim light, followed with their eyes the
course of the sly depredator, as he ran swiftly in a circle beneath,
until the frequent turning of their heads made them giddy and unable to
keep their balance. _But how did the fox know that such a result would
follow?_

The same gentleman gives, from his own observation, a case that is more
to the point. Here a bird is the mesmeric practitioner. "I once saw a
golden eagle which appeared entirely to fascinate a rabbit that was put
into the large cage in which the eagle was kept. As soon as the rabbit
was introduced, the eagle fixed his eye upon it, and the rabbit intently
returned the gaze, and began going round the eagle in circles,
approaching nearer each time, the eagle meanwhile turning on his axis
(as it were) on the block of wood upon which he was seated, and keeping
his eye fixed upon that of the rabbit.

"When the rabbit had approached very near to the bottom of the eagle's
perch, it stood up on its hind legs, and looked the eagle in the face;
the eagle then made his pounce, which appeared at once to break the
charm, and the rabbit ran for its life, but it was too late for it to
escape the clutch of the eagle, and the instant death which followed
that tremendous squeeze."[181]

I am not sure how far a parallelism exists between this animal
fascin