THE ANIMAL SENSE OF HUMOUR 75 



own dog never took a part unless he saw his master 

 engaged also, except when he went to bed at night 

 in the stable. Then his whole demeanour changed. 

 He would wag his tail like a cur, and sit waiting till 

 the corn bin was opened to give the horse his last 

 feed, and try to catch the mice that rushed out when 

 the lid was raised. His appreciation of the ludicrous 

 grew with his knowledge of the world ; and though 

 he never showed the slightest inclination to indulge 

 it by annoying other creatures, and never even chased 

 a cat unless he were told to, he was always im- 

 mensely amused when we did anything which struck 

 him as incorrect. His behaviour on the first occa- 

 sion on which he saw a wild duck shot was unmis- 

 takable. The bird a teal fell in a pond, and the 

 setter, who was an excellent water dog, swam in, and 

 brought it to land. The bird was alive, and as soon 

 as he had reached the bank, the dog set it down and 

 danced round it, and then came back and looked 

 up doubtfully, wagging his tail just as he did when 

 mouse-hunting, evidently meaning to say : ' Here's 

 a lark, youVe shot a duck.' As he had left it on 

 the other side of a ditch, we told him to go and 

 fetch it. But < Jack/ like Sally Harowwell in Tom 

 Brown, would have nothing more to do with it, and 

 though we endeavoured to persuade him that it was 

 all right, like a true-born Suffolker, as he was, he 



