76 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



1 knowed better/ and we had to fetch it ourselves. 

 He behaved in exactly the same way when we shot 

 a black rabbit. Nothing would persuade him that 

 it was not a cat ; and he would do no serious work 

 for the rest of the day. Like many other dogs, this 

 one had the greatest dislike to being laughed at a 

 fact which, in itself, goes far to show that, with the 

 sense of humour, animals possess its frequent con- 

 comitant, a dislike of ridicule. But in no case have 

 we seen the least approach to the sense of humour, in 

 its developed form, in wholly wild creatures. In 

 animals, as in man, humour is the result of civilisa- 

 tion, and not, as we understand it, a natural and 

 spontaneous development. 



