A DOG'S LAUGH. 



91 



Now, is not that a good laugh, (j[uite free and affectionate, that 

 is represented in the picture, Fig, 1, taken from the instantane- 

 ous photograph of a little fox-terrier bitch in my possession, 

 which puts on this 

 expression very 

 prettily every time 

 it would manifest 

 pleasure or a great 

 joy ? Fig. 2 gives 

 also the expression 

 of a dog laughing 

 all over. It is the 

 portrait of a collie 

 bitch. The animal 

 has a very pleas- 

 ant physiognomy. 

 The French lan- 

 guage has an ex- 

 pression, ca7vin , for 

 canine laughter, 

 which the diction- 

 aries define by say- 

 ing that it is pro- 

 duced by the con- 

 traction of the ca- 

 nine muscle, or the 

 muscle that lifts 

 the angle of the 

 lips ; and they give 



it as the synonym of sardonic laughter, because it is produced on 

 only one side of the mouth. Fig. 1 shows that this synonymy is 

 not always just. 



A friend of mine has a terrier which also laughs, and which 

 has after a few months taught a spaniel, its habitual companion, 

 to laugh. 



This education of one animal by another is not so rare as might 

 be supposed. I knew a little dog in Havana, a great friend of the 

 cat of the house, that took from it the habit of moistening its paws 

 with its tongue and washing its face with them. Translated for 

 the Popular Science Monthly f rout La Nature. 



\Q. i. 



-A Collie "Laughing all Ovek." 

 From a photograph. 



There is a good deal of human nature in the reason which General Sir 

 Thomas Gordon gives in his Persia Revisited as having been assigned by a 

 mollah of that country for opposing education. " They will read the Koran 

 for themselves," he said, "' and what will be left for us to do ? " 



