458 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



house. Anyhow, after I had put up the horses at an inn, I 

 spent the morning with the terrier and his new masters, and 

 in the afternoon was accompanied by them to the inn. I 

 should have mentioned that the inn was the same as that at 

 which the' conveyance had been put up on the previous occa- 

 :^sion, five months before. Now, the dog evidently remembered 

 this, and, reasoning from analogy, inferred that I was about to 

 return. This is shown by the fact that he stole away from our 

 party — although at what precise moment he did so I cannot 

 say, but it was certainly after we had arrived at the inn, for 

 subsequently we all remembered his having entered the coffee- 

 room with us. Now, not only did he infer from a single pre- 

 cedent that I was going home, and make up his mind to go with 

 me, but he also further reasoned thus : — 'As my previous master 

 lately sent me to town, it is probable that he does not want 

 me to return to the country ; therefore, if I am to seize this 

 opportunity of resuming my poaching life, I must now steal 

 a march upon the conveyance. But not only so, my former 

 master may possibly pick me up and return with me to my 

 proper owners ; therefore I must take care only to intercept the 

 conveyance at a point sufficiently far without the town to 

 make sure that he will not think it worth his while to go back 

 with me.' 



Complicated as this train of reasoning is, it is the 

 simplest one I can devise to account for the fact that 

 slightly beyond the third milestone the terrier was await- 

 ing me, lying right in the middle of the road with his 

 face towards the town. I should add that the second two 

 miles of the road were quite straight, so that I could 

 easily have seen the dog if he had been merely running a 

 comparatively short distance in front of the horses. Why 

 this animal should never have returned to his former home 

 on his own account I cannot suggest, but I think it was 

 merely due to ^n excessive caution which he also mani- 

 fested in other things. However, be the explanation of this 

 what it may, as a fact he never did venture to come back 

 upon his own account, although there never was a sub- 

 sequent occasion upon which any of his former friends 

 went to the town but the terrier was seen to return with 

 them, having always found some way of escape from his 

 intended imprisonment. 



The Eev. J. C. Atkinson gives an account (' Zoolo- 



