456 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



flew at that with increased fierceness. This I did many times, 

 covering and uncovering each picture alternately, always with 

 the same result. It was only when all three paintings were 

 uncovered at the same time, and he saw one looking at him in 

 whatever direction he turned, that he became utterly terrified. 

 He continued in this state for nearly an hour, at the end of which 

 time, although evidently very nervous and apt to start, he 

 ceased to bark. After that day he never took any more notice 

 of the pictures during the three months he remained in the 

 house. He was then absent from the house for seven months. 

 On his return he went with me into the room where the por- 

 traits were hung, immediately on his arrival. He was evidently 

 again much startled on first seeing them, for he rushed at one, 

 barking as he had done on the first occasion, but he only gave 

 three or four barks when he ran back to me with the same 

 apologetic manner as he has when he has barked at a well- 

 known friend by mistake. 



It will have been observed that in all these cases the 

 portraits, when first recognised as bearing resemblance ta 

 human beings, were placed on the floor, or in the ordinary 

 Line of the dog's sight. This is probably an important 

 condition to the success of the recognition. That it cer- 

 tainly was so in the case of my sister's terrier was strikingly 

 proved on a subsequent occasion, when she took the 

 animal into a pictmre-shop where there were a number of 

 portraits hanging round the walls, and also one of Car- 

 lyle standing on the floor. The terrier did not heed those 

 upon the walls, but barked excitedly at the one upon the 

 floor. This case was further interesting from the fact 

 that there were a number of purchasers in the shop who. 

 were, of course, strangers to the terrier ; yet he took no 

 notice of them, although so much excited by the picture. 

 This shows that the pictorial illusion was not so complete 

 as to make the animal suppose the portrait to be a real 

 person ; it was only sufficiently so to make it feel a sense 

 of bewildered uncertainty at the kind of life-in-death 

 appearance of the motionless representation. 



If, notwithstanding all this body of mutually corrobo- 

 rative cases, it is still thought incredible that dogs should 

 be able to recognise pictorial representations,^ we should 



^ Since my MS, went to press I have myself met with a striking^- 



