THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 189 



course, no such thing as following the tune, the impres- 

 sion was made on the hearer that the dog tried to sing 

 with it, and was very proud of her skill. I should hesi- 

 tate to relate this if others had not advanced the same 

 belief. Scheitlin thinks that music may be painful 

 to the dog, but goes on: " It may be questioned whether 

 he does not, in his way> accompany it." * Komanes 

 6ays the same thing: " With the exception of the sing- 

 ing ape (Hylobates agilis) there is no evidence of any 

 mammal other than man having any delicate percep- 

 tion of pitch. I have, however, heard a terrier, which 

 used to accompany a song by howling, follow the pro- 

 longed notes of the human voice with some approxi- 

 mation to unison; and Dr. Huggins, who has a good 

 ear, tells me that his large mastiff, Kepler, used to do 

 the same to prolonged notes sounded from an organ." f 

 Still more positive are some of the examples given 

 by Alix; they really seem to border on the marvellous. 

 " Pere Pardies cites the case of two dogs that had been 

 taught to sing, one of them taking a part with his master. 

 Pierquin de Gembloux also speaks of a poodle that 

 could run the scale in tune and sing very agreeably a 

 fine composition of Mozart's (My Heart it sighs at Eve, 

 etc.). It was called Capucin, and belonged to Habe- 

 neck, a theatrical director. All the scientists in Paris, 

 according to the same authority, went to see the dog be- 

 longing to Dr. Bennati, and hear it sing the scale, which 

 it could do perfectly. I myself know a poodle that ac- 

 companies his mistress very well when she plays the 

 scale on the piano." % Alix cites Leibnitz, too, who had 

 seen a dog with such a capacity for imitation that he 



* Thierseelenkunde, ii, p. 254. 



f Romanes, Mental Evolution in Animals, p. 93. 



\ L'esprit de nos betes, p. 364. 



