judge of the force of this fact it must be borne in mind how readily dogs commit errors of identity, how easily they fail to recognise their own loved masters under unusual circumstances for instance, as to mere dress. There are many instances of dogs not knowing their masters when the latter were simply nude-as when bathing-or had changed their ordinary dress for a hunting or fancy costume, or had appeared in the unexpected rôle of burglars or otherwise. The marked antipathy to butchers, and the discovery of butchers simply as such in any company and under any circumstances, by certain dogs, is usually attributed to the use of their keen powers of smell or scent; but that this is the proper explanation cannot be said yet to have been determined. Other singular antipathies, the nature or causation of which has also yet to be determined, include— 1. That of European dogs to negroes, according to Monteiro. His own dog never got over this aversion, one that is set down to the odour of the negro's skin, which is described as abominable. But it may be due partly also, or altogether, to mere colour. 2. That of nearly related birds which in their earlier years . . are close companions and friends,' such as the swift and chimney swallow. It may be by smell or hearing, but it may also be by some means at present unknown, that the dog or cat, even when blind or when vision is otherwise impossible, discovers the approach or presence of friends or foes, masters or strangers. I have myself repeatedly seen an old blind cat at once detect the presence in a room of a domestic servant who was unkind to it, and seek safety-from the dreaded kick apparently --by immediate flight or concealment. It was impossible for me to determine from what I saw whether smell or hearing was chiefly at work, whether the animal recognised the girl's footfall or smelt her person or dress, nor had I the desirable opportunity of putting the matter to the test by experimental enquiry. Somewhat similar in character are— 1. The vague uneasiness felt and shown by the dog in proximity to a master whose person is unseen, or whose presence is presumably otherwise unknown. 2. The recognition, by a still more marked degree of mental excitement, of the body of a master or mistress, though coffined and brought from a distance. 3. The recognition of a mistress's propinquity by Lady Davies's paroquet on the occasion of an experimental visit paid to it, when it could neither hear her voice nor see her face. 4. Dogs pursuing dog-skin sellers (Pierquin). 5. The recognition and avoidance of human dog-stealers and police stray-dog killers (Low). 6. The detection of frozen travellers buried in snow. 7. The finding, collecting, guarding, or home-bringing of sheep in the dark (Hogg). 8. The detection of murderers or thieves; or of 9. Lost or stolen and buried property or treasure. 10. A dog, though blind, becoming aware of a master's death (Percy Anecdotes '). 11. The distinction of a dead master on the battle-field from heaps of other bodies, all mutilated and unrecognisable by their features to man. We have no clue at present to the nature of the attraction that bright, glittering metallic objects have for many animals, to their reasons for hoarding them, to the possible use that could under any circumstances be made of them. We know that rats, starlings, and other animal thieves pilfer coin, spoons, and other similar but heterogeneous articles that are apparently utterly useless to them, and that they accumulate them in hoards without making any other or further use of them. In the Vischaca such hoards are comparable to the midden heaps of primitive man (Cassell), except in so far as concerns the uselessness and heterogeneity of the articles accumulated, and those of the rat are frequently also both large and varied as to their constituents. Were it not that the most miscellaneous articles are piled up in unutilised heaps, we might conceive their being rendered available either as playthings or ornaments. If in any of these cases there is a distinct object in committing such thefts, making such acquisitions of useless property, it has yet to be determined what that object is. My own belief is, as expressed in other chapters, that we have here to do with a sort of morbid acquisitiveness of the character of that which in man is known as kleptomania. And there are many other phenomena connected with the habits of animals which at present puzzle us, which we cannot satisfactorily explain, for which we cannot assign any intelligible or obvious motive, cause, or object, and which are really, or may be, morbid in their character, referable to the category of disease, mental or bodily, to morbid impulse, morbid feeling, morbid thought, morbid will, morbid fancy; while there are many other phenomena that may not be, or appear to be, morbid, or the result of morbid mental action, that are yet unexplained and that cannot be enumerated here. Sufficient illustrations as to number and variety have already been given to indicate the kind of mental phenomena, or phenomena connected with mental action, in the lower animals that constitute puzzles or problems awaiting solution, and which will probably repay careful experimental enquiry. 12 |