52 DOGS 



corner. It was soon calmed and reassured ; but whenever 

 during the afternoon one of the boys spoke to it directly 

 in Italian in a loud and commanding voice it made a feeble 

 attempt to perform. It was obvious that it had been 

 trained as an artiste, and that the sound of the Italian 

 language, resembling that of the Spanish tongue employed 

 by its master, set the old and somewhat rusty machinery 

 in motion again. 



2. When we were living at Whitehill, Colvend, in the 

 autumn of 1881 , a tortoiseshell kitten from a neighbouring 

 cottage became a paying guest, spending most of its time 

 with us, amply requiting by its pretty ways the tit-bits 

 and petting bestowed on it. It was a good mouser and 

 hunter, and on one of its expeditions after big game 

 rabbits had the femur of its left hind leg fractured about 

 the middle of the shaft, either by a stone thrown at it or 

 by a trap or tumble. It came home limping painfully, 

 dragging the leg, and for a couple of days was restless and 

 evidently suffered much. At that time it discovered for 

 itself that the easiest position was to lie on a soft-cushioned 

 ottoman or window-seat, with the injured leg hanging over 

 the edge. This position it then adopted and habitually 

 maintained for three weeks. The weight of the limb pro- 

 duced the necessary extension, and union took place in the 

 most extraordinary way without shortening. 



JAMES CKICHTON-BROWNE. 



October 14, 1905. 



NOTE. A valuable letter. It is an interesting fact that 

 hereditary characters in wild animals may remain latent 

 and potential for long periods, until the appropriate 

 stimulus whips off the lid of the Jack-in-the-box, as it were. 

 Seeds, for instance, will remain just pellets for years, until 

 the right conditions summon them to germinate. The 

 tragic story of human reversion and atavism is a grim 

 comment on the persistence of ancestral inheritance an 



