40 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



from those of other people, but they also learn to recognize 

 the bounds of their house-lot or even of a considerable farm. 

 When a dog, even of a militant quality, enters on territory 

 which he does not feel to belong to him, he is at once a very 

 different creature as compared to his condition when he is on 

 his own land. He treads warily and will accept without dis- 

 pute an order to take himself off. A perception of this sort . 

 indicates an extraordinary amount of sympathy and discern- 

 ment. It requires us to assume that the creature has a good 

 sense of topography and that he observes closely the various 

 acts, none of them perhaps very indicative, which go to show 



the limits of his master's claims. 



I 



Although the mental qualities of our highly domesticated 

 dogs are singularly like those of their masters, the likeness 

 going to the point that the household pet is apt to have 

 acquired something of the general character of the people 

 with wdiom he dwells, there are many suggestive differences 

 arising from failures of development which are in the highest 

 measure interesting to those who study the species. We 

 note, in the first place, that although for ages in contact with 

 the constructive work which occupies his masters, the dog 

 shows no tendency whatever to essay any undertakings of 

 this nature. He is quite alive to considerations of personal 

 comfort and is particularly fond of a warm bed ; yet, except for 

 a few unverified stories, we may say that there is no evidence 

 whatever to show that they ever try to improve their con- 

 ditions by deliberately providing themselves with warm bed- 

 ding. In no well-attested case has a dog shown any sense as 

 to the nature of any mechanical contrivance. They will 

 learn which way a door opens, and rarely if ever do they 

 undiscerningly close it when it is slightly ajar and they 



