SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 685 



wild Canidae, as the Jackal, the Dog of Beloochistan, and the 

 Prairie Wolf. 



The Dog, by whatever means, has the power of communi- 

 cating his wishes and purposes to his fellows. A terrier, 

 having discovered a hare in its form, found its way to a neigh- 

 bouring house where a greyhound was kept, and brought it 

 to the place where the hare was couched. A little dog, re- 

 peatedly assailed by another more powerful than himself, 

 set forth in quest of a neighbouring watch-dog to punish the 

 aggressor. A dog, whose companion had been caught in a 

 gin, has gone in search of others to assist in the release of 

 his companion. The following story is told by M. Blaze, 

 in his Histoire du Chien. " Three dogs belonging, two of 

 them to M. G., and one of them to M. P., of Saint Bonnet 

 sur Galanne, in the department of Drome, went out to hunt 

 by themselves. One of the dogs followed a rabbit so far 

 into a deep burrow, that his escape became impossible. 

 The two other dogs strove ineffectually to scrape away the 

 earth, so as to relieve their imprisoned companion. They 

 returned to their respective masters, worn out and sad, and 

 on the following day found means to rejoin one another, and 

 again in the evening returned to their respective homes, ha- 

 rassed with fatigue, refusing all food, their paws bloody, and 

 their bodies covered with dust. For several days this was 

 repeated, when one morning, at dawn of day, M. G. was 

 awakened by the scratching of dogs at his door. Descend- 

 ing, he found the dog which he had given up for lost, weak, 

 languishing, and like a skeleton, escorted by his two deliver- 

 ers." But innumerable instances might be cited, in which 

 dogs unite for specific ends, in such a manner that no one 

 can doubt that the means are possessed by them of communi- 

 cating their purposes to one another. 



The power of observation possessed by these creatures is 

 often remarkably evinced. A dog, observing a theft secretly 

 committed, has been known to seize the culprit, when no one 

 else observed the act. Dogs, it is said, have surmised in- 



