CANINE MORALS AND MANNERS. 181 



of them when drawing a covert. If a faint drag is detected sug- 

 gestive of the presence of a fox, but scarcely sufficient to be sworn 

 to vocally, the tail of the finder is at once set in motion, and the 

 warmer the scent the quicker does it wag. Others seeing the sig- 

 nal instantly join the first, and there is an assemblage of waving 

 tails before ever the least whimper is heard. Should the drag 

 prove a doubtful one, the hounds separate again and the waving 

 ceases ; but if it grows stronger when followed up, the wagging 

 becomes more and more emphatic, until one after another the 

 hounds begin to whine and give tongue, and stream off in Indian 

 file along the line of scent. When the pack is at full cry upon a 

 strong scent the tails cease to wave, but are carried aloft in full 

 view. 



The whole question of tail- wagging is a very interesting one. 

 All dogs wag their tails when pleased, and the movement is gen- 

 erally understood by their human associates as an intimation that 

 they are happy. But when we attempt to discover the reason 

 why pleasure should be expressed in this way, the explanation ap- 

 pears at first a very difficult one. All physical attributes of living 

 beings are, upon the evolutionary hypothesis, traceable to some 

 actual need, past or present. The old and delightfully conclusive 

 dictum that things are as they are because they were made so at 

 the beginning no longer can be put forward seriously outside the 

 pulpit or the nursery. No doubt, in many cases, as, for instance, 

 the origin of human laughter, the mystery seems unfathomable. 

 But this only results from our defective knowledge of data upon 

 which to build the bridge of deductive argument. The reason is 

 there all the time could we but reach it ; and almost daily we are 

 able to account for mysterious and apparently anomalous phe- 

 nomena which utterly baffled our predecessors. 



Probably the manner in which domestic dogs express pleasure 

 is owing to some interlocking of the machinery of cognate ideas. 

 In order to understand this better it may be helpful to consider 

 some analogous instances with regard to habits of our own spe- 

 cies. 



One of the most philosophical of living physicians, Dr. Lauder 

 Brunton, has clearly and amusingly* shown that the instinctive 

 delight and eagerness with which a medical man traces an obscure 

 disease step by step to its primary cause and then enters into 

 combat with it, is referable to the hunter's joy in pursuit, which 

 doubtless characterized our savage ancestors when they patiently 

 tracked their prey to its lair and slew it for glory or for suste- 

 nance.* 



Mr. Grant Allen, I believe, first suggested that our apprecia- 



* The Method of Zadig in Medicine, p. 5. Macmillan & Co. 1892. 



