224 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



game by the relay system. The sheep-killing dog is a cunning 

 night assassin, a deceiver of his master, a shrewd hider of crim- 

 inal evidence, a sanctimonious hypocrite by day but a bloody- 

 minded murderer under cover of darkness. Sometimes his 

 cunning is almost beyond belief. Now, can anyone tell us how 

 much of this particular evolution is due to the influence of 

 Man upon Dog through a hundred generations of captivity and 

 association? Has the dog learned from man the science of 

 moral banditry, the best methods for the concealment of evi- 

 dence, and how to dissemble? 



Elsewhere a chapter is devoted to the crimes of wild animals; 

 but the great majority of the cases cited were found among 

 captive animals, where abnormal conditions produced excep- 

 tional results. The crimes of captive animals are many, but 

 the crimes of free wild animals are comparatively few. When- 

 ever we disturb the delicate and precise balance of nature we 

 may expect abnormal results* 



