350 UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN LANGUAGE. 



(Theocritus) and a modern (Wood) practice. Various fish 

 kept in pleasure-ponds in gentlemen's demesnes also know 

 their own master's voice or call, and sometimes even footfall 

 or footstep, from those of all other individuals. They attend 

 to the one and are indifferent to the other. The mention 

 of a dog's name in ordinary conversation is frequently 

 sufficient to rouse it at once from sleep (Houzeau) . It has 

 even been alleged that some dogs know man's names for 

 their own sex dog or bitch and associate the proper idea 

 with the said names or words (Houzeau). It is further of 

 interest to note that dogs and other animals answer to their 

 names when man's names are imitated by such birds as the 

 parrot and raven. These birds know individual dogs by 

 sight, and call them properly by their names, imitating man 

 so successfully as to deceive the higher animals (Low) 

 both man and dog. 



The number of animals that know the names of the dif- 

 ferent members of a human household, and of the chief 

 articles of domestic use, is much more limited. This sort of 

 intelligence is not uncommon, however, in the dog ; and it 

 is occasionally exhibited even by the cat. Thus we are told 

 of a cat that knew the name of each member of a family, and 

 the particular seats of each at table. If asked where is 

 So-and-so then absent she would look at the vacant seat, 

 then at the speaker, and if told to fetch him or her, ' she 

 would trot upstairs, take the handle of the door between her 

 paws, put her mouth to the keyhole, mew and wait to be let 

 in,' to some particular room, containing the absentee (Clara 

 Rossiter) . 



Certain dogs know not only when they are spoken to, but 

 when spoken of casually in the conversation of their masters 

 conversation sometimes experimentally intended but in 

 other cases as certainly not intended for dogs' ears. In both 

 cases the result has been the same as regards the prompt and 

 appropriate action of the animals. They are quite aware 

 when they become the subject of man's conversation (Wat- 

 son), and are naturally on such occasions all ear and atten- 

 tion, though the old adage too frequently holds good that 

 listeners unintended listeners, that is are apt to hear 



