THE PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG ANIMALS 221 



IV. THE DOG AND THE CAT COMPARED. 



ALTHOUGH, in popular estimation, the dog and the cat 

 are considered as opposites in almost every respect, in 

 reality they have much more in common than any two 

 of those animals commonly kept by man, as should be 

 expected from their place in nature. 



A comparison will, however, prove profitable, it is 

 believed, and this will be based chiefly on the diaries of 

 the papers on " The Dog " and " The Cat " respectively. 



Both the dog and the cat, it is scarcely necessary to 



Appendix D. of Herbert Spencer's ' Justice,' there is some account of 

 Judy and her pup. Punch is the monkey who was five years old when 

 I wrote some letters to H. S., which he inserted in the 'Justice.' 

 He commented on Punch's actions, calling him ' The Christian Dog.' 

 The pup was suckled almost in the dark, and* the mother removed 

 to some seven miles off as soon as he could lap milk, to prevent the 

 rise of imitative habits. 



" I could not note that his head differed notably from Jack's (the 

 sire) at two years of age, nor from the mother's, so far as I recollected, 

 but 'strain' of the environment told on him. Somehow he dis- 

 covered that one of the family could not hear, and took her under his 

 charge, and for eight years he has never let horse, vehicle, or tramp 

 approach her without warning, and if she misunderstands his indica- 

 tion as to direction, he either stops her altogether, or, if there is danger, 

 hustles her, and in some urgent cases, by no means gently, out of the 

 way, But the unaccustomed environment told in another way. In 

 consequence of accidents I have had to walk with a crutch. I came to 

 a slippery place one day, and slightly slipped. The dog shrank as if 

 struck ; he had been running finely over such places freely before, but 

 directly I came near another place of the kind the dog assumed the 

 ' danger step,' or ' cautious step,' looked up in my face, and walked 

 with this step which dogs naturally use when approaching an un- 

 known and possibly dangerous object. I was much puzzled one day 

 by his use of this gait, and his ' edging me ' out of the direct line I 

 was taking, as there was no apparent reason for it, On standing and 

 looking back, he at once pointed, and on examining the grass I found 

 that a brood of very young geese (without the parent) was hidden in 

 the long grass, and if he had not turned me I must have stepped upon 

 them. The dog's sire was' a pure otter dog, mother a mixed breed, 

 with much of the Spaniel in her. It is doubtful if there is any 

 pointer blood, yet the dog is always pointing or indicating by other 

 gesture not birds, however, but things we should not otherwise 

 observe. A slip among the rocks of those he is attached to, if very 

 definite, calls forth a positive shriek, followed by his hastening with- 

 out regard to falls and tumbles to the one who has slipped." 



