CRIME AND CRIMINALITY. 163 



as man, are conscious of the criminality, the illegality, of 

 their acts, are sensible of the nature and consequences of 

 wrong-doing of doing, that is, what is forbidden by man. 



Now, many of the lower animals show such moral 

 sensitiveness in a variety of ways. 



1. Their criminal acts are executed in such a way as to 

 show that they recognise the necessity for secrecy and noise- 

 lessness in all their operations. 



2. They exhibit their sense of guilt or shame on detection ; 

 they make confession of their criminality by look, gait or 

 otherwise. 



3. They make ingenious efforts to conceal their crimes 

 by taking precautions against interruption, discovery, de- 

 tection or capture, removing or destroying the evidence of 

 their commission. 



4. In some cases they express regret 9 repentance or re- 

 morse, and endeavour to make reparation or atonement; or 

 they seek reconciliation. 



The monkey, dog, cat or other expert animal thieves, 

 in proportion to their cultivated general intelligence and 

 special experience, take care that they are unobserved when 

 they commit their act of theft, or at least they fancy them- 

 selves unnoticed at the time. Hence their actions are 

 stealthy; they do nothing to attract attention, and every- 

 thing to disarm suspicion, proceeding noiselessly and looking 

 cautiously or furtively around from time to time, to make 

 sure that there are no human or other on-lookers. The 

 smuggler's clog conceals himself from the observation of the 

 human guardians of the law (Low), well knowing that it is 

 his business for the moment to circumvent them. A thievish 

 rook 'pretends to be very busy, and when she imagines that 

 no one is looking on,' commits her theft. C I have never 

 seen a theft committed openly, probably from the fear of 

 exciting popular indignation ' (' Chamber s's Journal '), a fact 

 that shows, on the one hand, that in some cases animal 

 thieves are as much afraid of each other, as witnesses of 

 their delinquencies, as they are of man, and that the nature 

 of the act of stealing is not only understood by many 

 animals, but condemned by them. The rat, too, prior to its 



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