524 DECEPTION. 



their necks out of a collar, escape from the kennel for 

 hours, return as surreptitiously as they went, resuming their 

 collar and their place in the kennel, and assuming before 

 human visitors an air of perfect innocence and ignorance 

 (Cassell, Low). And other night marauders resort to similar 

 shifts to conceal or effect their purpose, knowing obviously 

 that concealment is necessary and detection possible. 



There is a wonderful amount of hypocrisy, too, in the 

 invention of excuses for laziness, or for the avoidance of irk- 

 some work ; in the ruses of the c lazy dog,' or e idle dog,' or 

 6 dirty dog ' to escape duty, or punishment ruses that include 

 the simulation of sleep, repose, fatigue, flight, wounds, ill- 

 ness, dying, or death ! 



Even verbal or oral deception occurs occasionally in the 

 speech-gifted parrot, when it uses its gift, for instance, for 

 the purpose of fun or mischief in practical jokes. 



In point of fact, then, the lower animals, like man, prac- 

 tise deceit in a great variety of ways, and from a great variety 

 of motives : some of the latter commendable, as self-defence, 

 the preservation of life, escape from enemies or danger, 

 the protection or amusement of the young, self-recreation ; 

 others reprehensible, as revenge, cupidity, wanton mischie- 

 vousness, or cruelty. Illustrations of the many forms in 

 which individual animals deceive each other, or man, are 

 to be found in all kinds of 



Simulation, or dissimulation, including 



Feints or ruses ; 



Stratagems or manoeuvres ; 



Pretence ; 



as these are embodied in games, practical jokes, theatrical 

 performances ; and as they are expressed sometimes, merely 

 in look, as well as more generally by behaviour, which in- 

 volves gesture, a/fctitude and action. Only some of these 

 forms of deception can be considered in the present chapter. 

 But references to other forms may be found in the chapters 

 on ' Practical Jokes,' ' Adaptiveness,' and ' Error.' 



Perhaps the most familiar examples of deception prac- 

 tised by the lower animals are the varied forms of simulating 

 or feigning 



