STUDY IN ANIMAL CHARACTER 231 



We catch but fleeting glimpses of wild animals ; 

 hence it is not easy to study their idiosyncrasies. For- 

 tunately, there are the domestic animals. These come to 

 our help. Every horse, cat, dog, cow, and fowl has its 

 own little character, which is displayed in its actions. 

 It is to these creatures that we must turn if we should 

 study character among animals. 



Two fox-terriers allow me to share the bungalow 

 with them, so that I have an excellent opportunity of 

 observing their idiosyncrasies. They are what the Babu 

 would call he-dogs, and rejoice in the respective names 

 of Tony and Bob. So great is the diversity of charac- 

 ter which they exhibit that, after watching them for 

 a few weeks, one feels capable of writing a canine 

 " Sandford and Merton." 



The lineage of neither of these dogs is unimpeach- 

 able. There are bars sinister on the escutcheon of 

 each. Bob is a stolid, squarely built animal, exhibiting 

 distinct traces of the bull-terrier. He reminds one of 

 a Dutch burgher; he is eminently respectable, although 

 not of prepossessing appearance. Tony is a lanky dog, 

 a canine " daddy-long-legs." He has been allowed to 

 run to seed and has developed into a fragile weed of a 

 hound. He has a pretty face, but his beauty is not 

 patrician; it is, in fact, distinctly plebeian, being that 

 of a glorified pariah dog. His worst enemies could not 

 call him phlegmatic, but they might hint that he is 

 afflicted with St. Vitus's dance. 



Bob's character is in keeping with his appearance. 

 There is in it much of sterling merit. He is an austere 

 dog, despising the vain pomp and glory of this world. 



