44 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



halts and bows, find a parallel in the amusing form 

 of canine etiquette when one dog 'spies a stranger' 

 at a distance. The first dog stops short, then trots 

 on a little, then crouches, and finally lies flat down, 

 with its nose on its paws, like a skirmisher ordered 

 to open fire on the enemy. The other dog which 

 was less quick-sighted, sometimes lies down too, but 

 more usually trots slowly up, with occasional halts. 

 The action of the first seems clearly to be a survival 

 of a time when a dog naturally crouched in order 

 to conceal itself the moment it saw any other creature 

 which might hurt it, or which, on the contrary, it 

 might want to stalk. The sudden drop is something 

 like that of a setter when ' creeping ' up to the birds, 

 but more like the crouch of a fox when it sees a 

 hare, or wants to conceal itself from persons whom 

 it sees while it is still unseen. But now it is observed 

 as pure convention, one which is obviously mere 

 show, but to omit which would be a breach of canine 

 etiquette, which might, and sometimes does, lead to a 

 fight. It is not polite for one dog to omit the form 

 of pretending that the other is a big, strong, important 

 person, against whom he must take precautions. 

 The etiquette of combat is apparently among the 

 most artificial of human observances. It does not 

 seem to take form except in states of society in which 

 public and private war has been recognised as one 



