THE DOG 43 



ably greater measure of capacity than is observable in any 

 other group of domesticated animals. There is no question 

 that they can recall their associations with people from whom 

 they have been separated for a year or more. Some trust- 

 worthy anecdotes appear to establish the fact that the recol- 

 lections may endure for two or three years. I have observed 

 an instance in which the memory seems perfectly clear after 

 an interval of eighteen months, and this concerned a person 

 who had been with the dog for a period of not more than four 

 days. It is interesting to note the behavior of a dog when he 

 has failed to recognize a person whom he has known well, 

 but from whom he has been long separated. I have a shep- 

 herd-dog that has known me well, but the friendship is often 

 interrupted by partings of some months' duration. When, 

 after one of these absences, I appear to him in the distance, 

 he comes furiously towards me, quite possessed by his enmity. 

 At a certain point in his charge a doubt begins to beset 

 him ; he moderates his pace ; his roaring bark passes into 

 a whine ; and as the full measure of his blunder is borne in 

 upon him by my voice, he becomes the picture of shame. In 

 his perplexity, he always finds relief in endeavoring with his 

 paw to scrape a supposititious fly from the side of his nose. 

 He then deals with what I suppose to be an equally imagin- 

 ary flea ; after he has thus gained a few seconds for readjust- 

 ment, he welcomes me joyously. All this is so thoroughly 

 human-like, that even the naturalist, the professional doubter, 

 is forced to believe that the dog's mind works substantially as 

 his own, and that the feelings connected with the action are 

 essentially the same. 



While in the case of the elephant and the pig, and in a 

 less measure in several other of the lower animals, we have 



