DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 53 



that this performance is a survival of the old bed- 

 making process of the wolf. It is the old process 

 of tramping down the grass to make a place to lie 

 in. This performance was useful when the dog 

 made its bed on the prairies, but it is a mere waste 

 of time to a dog lying down on a rug or a floor. 



Dogs bark as a general thing. But occasionally 

 they express themselves in a strange, hair-raising 

 howl. The "bark" is a product of domestication. 

 Wolves howl. A wolf will get up on a hill and give 

 out a long, loud howl, and another, miles away, 

 will answer. They find each other in this way. 

 And once in a while the dog will drop into this old 

 method of signalling. I used to hear this howl 

 years ago on the prairies of Kansas, when the 

 coyotes called from the hills at night. Nell was 

 our house-dog and friend. And ordinarily her 

 voice was as soft as rippling waters. But when 

 she heard the coyotes at night, she would stop 

 barking sometimes and express herself in a loud, 

 prolonged howl. It was so unearthly and so en- 

 tirely different from her. usual utterances that it 

 always seemed surprising that she could ever be 

 the author of it. It ivas the call of the wild. Long 

 ago she and her associates were accustomed to 

 megaphone to each other in this way. And her 

 machinery, altho weathered by ages of domes- 

 tication, had not forgotten the ways of the old, 

 wild, long-vanished life. 



Superstitious' people sometimes account for 

 these bowlings of the dog by supposing that they 



