114 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



Instead of walking upright, the body sinks downwards, or even crouches, and is thrown into flexuous 

 movements ; his tail, instead of being held stiff and upright, is lowered and wagged from side to side ; 

 his hair instantly becomes smooth ; his ears are depressed and drawn backwards, but not closely to the 

 head ; and his lips hang loosely. From the drawing back of the ears the eyelids become elongated, and 

 the eyes no longer appear round and staling." 



And again, " when a Dog is on the point of springing on his antagonist, he utters a savage growl ; 

 the ears are pressed closely backwards, and the upper lip is retracted out of the way of his teeth, 

 especially of his canines. ... If a Dog only snarls at another, the lip is generally retracted on 

 one side alone, namely, towards his enemy." 



" The feeling of affection of a Dog towards his master is combined with a strong sense of sub- 

 mission, which is akin to fear. Hence Dogs not only lower their bodies and crouch a little as they 

 approach their masters, but sometimes throw themselves on the ground, with their bellies upwards. 

 This is a movement as completely opposite as is possible to any show of resistance. ... A 

 pleasurable and excited state of mind, associated with affection, is exhibited by some Dogs in a very 

 peculiar manner, namely, by grinning." * 



It is extremely interesting to consider the means by which these various expressive movements 

 are produced. If the skin be removed from the head of a Dog, there will be seen, lying beneath it, a 

 quantity of red flesh, intermixed with a good deal of fat and fibrous substance. If this latter be care- 

 fully dissected away, the red flesh will be seen to resolve itself into a number of muscles, very definitely 

 arranged, and each one designed for some special movement. There are, first of all, muscles which 

 move the eye. One set of fibres closely encircle the aperture of the eyelids, and, when they act, close 

 the eye, either entirely, as in actual sleep, or partially, as in that half sleepy state a Dog loves to be in. 

 on a hot afternoon, or before a blazing fire. Another set of eye muscles have an entirely different 

 action to these. They radiate from the eyelids to the surrounding parts of the head, and when they act, 



" draw back the eyelids from the eyeball, and 

 give a sparkling fierceness to the eye." From 

 this reason Sir Charles Bell, who first described 

 them, called them scintillantes, or sparkling 

 muscles. The ears have a number of muscular 

 bands attached to them, some drawing them for- 

 wards, some backwards, others sideways. These 

 are, therefore, highly important muscles, for a 

 Dog hardly passes a moment without moving 

 his ears. We ourselves possess representatives 

 of these muscles, but in an entirely useless state 

 in most persons, very few having the power of 

 moving their ears. Other very important muscles 

 pass from one of the face bones in front of the eye, 

 and are attached to the lip just above the canine 

 teeth. When these act, they draw the lips back 



MUSCLES OF DOG'S HEAD. (After Sir C. Bell.) 



, Circular muscle round the ey elk's ; 6, rf, scintillantes ; /, g, ft, muscles of the 

 ear ; i, fr, ringrntes ; m, circular flhres of the mouth ; 11, muscle drawing 

 back the angle of the mouth ; o, cutaneous muscle, for moving the skin 

 of the neck. 



from those teeth, thus baring the Dog's chief 

 weapon, and producing a snarl ; they are, there- 

 fore, called the ringentes, or snarling muscles; 

 and one has only to irritate a Dog to see their 

 effect in altering the animal's expression. Lastly, there are muscles which draw back the corners 

 of the mouth and produce a sort of grin, an action which seems to be almost normal in the Wolf, 

 but which is also frequently seen in Dogs. It will be readily observed how important these 

 muscles are, and how every expressive look in a Dog's countenance can be referred to the action 

 of one or more of them. 



There can be no doubt that Dogs are perfectly capable of communicating their thoughts to one 

 another, and of understanding one another's meaning as well as that of their masters. One often sees 



* Darwin's " Expression of the Emotions.'' 



