160 DOG STORIES 



genitors when yet " wild in the woods the 

 noble beastie ran." Such, I believe, is 

 generally admitted to be the explanation of 

 the universal habit of every dog before lying 

 down to turn round two or three times and 

 scratch its intending bed even when that 

 bed is of the softest woollen or silk 

 apparently to ascertain that no snakes or 

 thorns lurk in its sleeping-place. 



A dog which I once possessed exhibited 

 such reversion to ancestral habits in a note- 

 worthy way. She was a beautiful white 

 Pomeranian ; and when a litter of puppies 

 was impending, on one occasion she scratched 

 an enormous hole in our back-garden in 

 South Kensington, where her leisure hours 

 were passed a hole like the burrow of a 

 fox. It was not in the least of the character 

 of the ordinary circular punch-bowl so often 

 scooped out by idle or impatient dogs, 

 but a long, deep channel running at a sharp 

 angle a considerable way underground. 

 Obviously, it was Yama's conviction that 

 it was her maternal duty to provide shelter 

 for her expected offspring, precisely as a 



