218 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



perhaps I may say, at all events that delicate apprecia- 

 tion of his own place and that of his fellow dogs 

 and human beings, which constitute such conspicuous 

 features in the psychic whole of the pure-bred dogs. 

 The latter show towards each other, in a kennel with 

 many together, when their owner encourages and gives 

 a chance for their exercise, kindness, justice, and many 

 qualities utterly foreign to the nature of the majority 

 of mongrels. I do not now use the term mongrel in 

 the sense of a cross between two pure-bred dogs, but 

 in the more popular acceptation of a dog bred from 

 parents that were mongrels, and perhaps the remoter 

 ancestors quite unknown. 



It is interesting to enquire whether these features of 

 the psychic organisation are shown in the young puppy, 

 and if so, when. 



Almost from the first the mongrel puppy shows an 

 ability to scramble for himself in " this rough world " 

 not manifested by the pure-bred dog. His very voice 

 on the first day of his existence may, and in this 

 case did, suggest this, but in nothing was it shown 

 so much as in the successful manner in which he 

 held his own among the dogs of the kennel, large and 

 small. This was all shown before the puppy was two 

 months old. His confidence in himself, his power to 

 adapt to unfavourable surroundings, was as advanced 

 at this age as the St Bernards at four months. He 

 reminded me of a forward boy, lacking in all true 

 modesty and due appreciation of what was due to his 

 seniors. Yet this mongrel, by virtue of this very 

 psychic condition, succeeds in his purposes, if one 

 may so express it. 



In the litter of St Bernards, the most prominent and 

 precocious one could not compare with this mongrel. 

 In the lower animals, development is so rapid that new 

 features in the psychic character at time seem to reach 



