Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/105

Rh I have a setter just now which has been made a pet of since a puppy. As he has a very fine nose, and is at liberty to go wherever he pleases, he often finds bits of food which he very well knows he has no right to take. If the food he finds happens to be of a dainty description, his conscientious scruples are overcome by the temptations of appetite; but, if the food should be of a less palatable kind, he generally carries it to me in order to obtain my permission to eat it. Now, as no one ever beats or even scolds this dog for stealing, his only object in thus asking permission to eat what he finds must be that of quieting his conscience. It should be added that when he brings stolen property to me it does not always follow that he is allowed to keep it.

This same animal, when I am out shooting with him, sometimes of course flushes birds. When he does so he immediately comes to me in a straight line, carrying his head and tail very low, as if to ask for pardon. Although I speak reproachfully to him on such occasions, I scarcely ever chastise him; so it cannot be fear that prompts this demeanor.

One other curious fact may here be mentioned about this dog. Although naturally a very vivacious animal, and, when out for a walk with myself or any other young person, perpetually ranging about in search of game, yet if taken out for a walk by an elderly person he keeps close to heel all the time—pacing along with a slow step and sedate manner, as different as possible from that which is natural to him. This curious behavior is quite spontaneous on his part, and appears to rise from his sense of the respect that is due to age.

The writer of the article on "Animal Depravity" makes the following quotation from an article of mine in Nature (vol. xii., page 66): "The terrier used to be very fond of catching flies upon the window-panes, and if ridiculed when unsuccessful was evidently much annoyed. On one occasion, in order to see what he would do, I purposely laughed immoderately every time he failed. It so happened that he did so several times in succession—partly, I believe, in consequence of my laughing—and eventually he became so distressed that he positively pretended to catch the fly, going through all the appropriate actions with his lips and tongue, and afterward rubbing the ground with his neck as if to kill the victim; he then looked up at me with a triumphant air of success. So well was the whole process simulated that I should have been quite deceived, had I not seen that the fly was still upon the window. Accordingly, I drew his attention to this fact, as well as to the absence of anything upon the floor; and, when he saw that his hypocrisy had been detected, he slunk away under some furniture, evidently very much ashamed of himself."

Upon this case the author of the article on "Animal Depravity" very properly observes: "This last point is most significant, fully overturning the vulgar notion of the absence of moral life in brutes,