

POLYGLOT ANIMALS 209 



" stay ben the house " while the wife goes out, and it 

 knows exactly and to the minute what every person 

 and every animal about the little farm will be doing at 

 any given time. It is thus that it also learns to under- 

 stand talk which refers to these objects of interest. 

 St. John, in his "Wild Sports of the Highlands," 

 says : " The dog that lives with his master constantly, 

 sleeping before his fire instead of in the kennel, and 

 seeing and hearing all that passes, learns, if at all 

 quick-witted, to understand not only the meaning of 

 what he sees going on, but also frequently, in the 

 most wonderful manner, of what is being talked of." 



The most curious example of a (probably) polyglot 

 dog's understanding of conversation was shown him by 

 a shepherd. Like the dogs of modern Greece, which 

 keep watch along the little banks that enclose their 

 masters' barley fields, the sheep-dogs " watch their 

 masters' small crop of oats with great fidelity and 

 keenness, keeping off all intruders in the shape of 

 cattle, sheep, and horses. A shepherd once, to prove 

 the value of his dog, which was lying before the fire 

 in the house where we were talking, said to me in the 

 middle of a sentence concerning something else, l I'm 

 thinking, sir, the cow is in the potatoes.' The dog, 

 which appeared to be asleep, immediately jumped up, 

 and leaping through the open window, scrambled up 

 the turf roof of the house, where he could see the 

 potato field. He then, not seeing the cow, ran and 

 looked into the byre, where she was, and finding that 

 all was right, came back to the house." The shepherd 

 said the same thing again, when the dog once more 



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