REASON IN THE DOG. 255 



manner^ and on fiirtlier researcli I discovered the 

 marks in the back of a cat's teeth. 



The only way to account for Nep's possession 

 of it was that some time in the night, when he 

 was loose, he either took the rabbit from a cat, 

 or found the rabbit when she, the cat, had left it. 

 Remembering, then (and this is reason, not instinct), 

 that I had seemed to set much store by rabbits, 

 instead of eating the tempting morsel, broken up 

 as it was, as many a dog Avould have done, he put 

 it in the safest place in his kennel, quite at the 

 back, and, knowing all the time it was there, he 

 did not produce it for my acceptance until he saw 

 that my usual occupation at that time in the 

 morning was . over ; then, and not till then, he 

 brought out the treasure he had guarded for my 

 acceptance. ^^ Instinct" had nothing to do with 

 this ; Nep found the half of a rabbit, perhaps in 

 a cat's possession,- — I think that very likely,—- and he 

 reasonahhj thought that, from what ho had seen 

 when out with me, I should like to have it. He 

 hieiv that at night he could not see me, and he knew 

 that, perhaps, the rabbit would be lost if he ceased 

 to guard it; so he put it into the back of his kennel, 

 and produced it at the right time, when my tem- 



