NATURAL HISTORY. 207 



O Imitators, servyle beastes, 



How have your tumultes vyle 

 Full oftcns rasde my collor vp, 



And oftens made me smyle." DRANT. 



There are also physiological reasons, which relate to the health, 

 increase, and purity of the species ; and economical reasons 

 comprehending the means of subsistence. 



623. Why is the faculty of imitation in animals sometimes 

 subservient to their necessities? 



Doubtless, in the wilds of nature, many 'instances of imitation 

 occur unobserved. An animal, unaccustomed to that habit, may, 

 in great extremity, climb a tree in search of prey ; or an herbivorous 

 animal may dig into the earth to find roots. This may arise, either 

 from imitation, or from a latent instinct called into operation only 

 under the promptings of extreme hunger. 



But there are evidences of animals in the domestic state frequently 

 imitating some action they have witnessed, when extremity compels 

 them to do so. Thus a dog will attempt to turn the handle of a door, 

 and sometimes successfully, when he wishes to obtain egress ; and 

 a cat, seeing a person eating, will extend its paw, as a human 

 being would his hand, for food. 



624. The following is a remarkable account of a dog obtaining food by ringing a 

 bell : At a convent in France, twenty paupers were served with a dinner at a 

 certain hour in the day. A dog belonging to the convent did not fail to be present 

 at this meal to receive the odds and ends which were now and then thrown down to 

 him. The guests, however, were poor and hungry, and of course not very waste- 

 ful ; so that their pensioner did little more than scent the feast, of which- he wouli 

 fain have partaken. The portions were served by a person at the ringing of a bell, 

 and delivered out by what in a religious house is called a tour, which is a machine 

 like the section of a cask, that, by turning round upon a pivot, exhibits whatever 

 is placed upon the converse side without discovering the person who moves it. 



One day this dog, who had only received a few scraps, waited till the paupers 

 were all gone, with the rope in his mouth, and rung the bell. This stratagem 

 succeeded. He repeated it the next day, with the same good fortune. At length 

 the cook, finding that twenty-one portions were delivered out instead of twenty, 

 was determined to discover the trick, in doing which he had no great difficulty ; 

 for, lying hidden, noticing the paupers as they came in, in great regularity, for 

 their different portions, and finding that there was no intruder except the dog, 

 he began to suspect the real truth, which he was soon confirmed in when he saw 

 the dog wait with great deliberation till the visitors were all gone, and then pull 

 the bell The matter was related to the community ; and, to reward the do? 



