o 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