ANIMAL COURAGE 63 



fort with an armed garrison it is difficult to over- 

 estimate the courage of the wild dogs in meeting and 

 destroying such an antagonist. It is extremely probable 

 that future observations of the courage of the wild 

 dog may justify a statement once made, perhaps with- 

 out sufficient evidence, that they have 'an inherent 

 hostility to the larger feline ^ and are incessantly on the 

 watch to destroy their whelps, so that the species are 

 the instrument by which Nature keeps down the super- 

 abundant increase of the great feline of the wilderness.' 

 It seems as if the tiger's dislike of the ' dhole' has 

 engendered in it a nervousness which extends to all 

 dogs. An anecdote given by Captain Williamson 

 illustrates this, as well as the extreme courage of the 

 domestic dog. He was shooting in India with a 

 spaniel, which apparently found some game which 

 his master guessed to be a hare. ' The dog came 

 to a stand over a bank, wagging its tail, with ears 

 up, and his whole frame in a state of ecstasy. I 

 expected that he had got a hare under the bank, 

 and, as the situation was in favour of getting a shot, 

 I ran towards him with more speed than I should 

 have done had I known that I should find a tiger 

 sitting up and staring " Paris " in the face ; they 

 were not three yards asunder. As soon as the dog 

 found me at his side, he barked, and, giving a 

 spring, dashed at the tiger.' His owner admits that 



