94 THE REASON WHY 



&quot;When I frown, they hang their most dejected heads, 

 Like fearful shecphoundfi ; show em a crust of bread, 

 They ll saint me presently, and skip like asses.&quot; BEAUMONT and FLETCHER. 



a portion of tough matter only by repeated vertical bites ; but it 

 he has much labour with the substance, and his hunger urges him 

 to eat it, he may be seen shifting his head, now higher at one side 

 and then higher at the other alternately, in order to bring the 

 whole under his teeth ; and he also flings his head upwards and 

 downwards, and gives a snap, so that the lower jaw may bite with 

 a momentum, while the substance to be divided rests against the 

 teeth of the upper jaw. 



296. Why may it be inferred that the habits of the shepherd* * 

 dog are the result of instruction rather than instinct ? 



Because the actions of these dogs appear to be governed by an 

 intelligence nearly allied to human reason ; and what is much too 

 artificial, and too greatly opposed to the nature of the animal, is to 

 be attributed to instruction. 



297. Very different propensities are found in various breeds of dogs, and they are 

 always such as are particularly suited to the purposes to which each of these breeds 

 has long been and is still applied. No one can suppose tl\at nature has gwt-n to 

 these several varieties of the same species such very different instinctive propensities, 

 and that each of these breeds should possess those that are best suited for the uses 

 to which they are respectively applied. It certainly seems more probable that these 

 breeds, having been long treated as they now are, and applied to the same uses, should 

 have acquired habits by experience and instruction which, in course of time, have 

 become hereditary. In short, that by far the greater part of the propensities that 

 are generally supposed to be instinctive, are not implanted in animals by nature, but 

 are the result of long experience, acquired and accumulated through many genera 

 tions, so as in course of time to assume the character of instinct. 



298. Sow may dogs be taught to distinguish playing cards, and 

 to pick them out from the pack correctly as they are named ? 



The dog is taught to do this by frequently offering him food on 

 a card he is unacquainted with, after which they send him to find 

 it out from the rest, and he never mistakes. The habit of profiting 

 by that discovery and receiving caresses enables him by degrees to 

 grow acquainted with each particular card- 



