CRIME AND CRIMINALITY. 167 



irritated him so as to cause him to chase them to a distance, 

 when they literally 'flew' to his dish, outstripping him of 

 course, and carried off what they had coveted (Wood). 



It is not a little curious we cannot at present offer any 

 solution of the cause of the phenomenon that the dog, and 

 perhaps other animals, both suspect and detect the crimi- 

 nality and crimes of man. Numerous instances have been 

 placed on record of dogs detecting and exposing, sometimes 

 capturing and punishing, human thieves and murderers, 

 theft or murder by man. But there is no evidence to show 

 how their suspicions as to the sinister designs or proceedings 

 of the human criminals are aroused. That such suspicions 

 are aroused we have ample evidence, as well as that, as in 

 man, they may be aroused without ground, may even be 

 morbid in their character, begotten by a disordered imagi- 

 nation. It is by no means uncommon, for instance, for dogs 

 to jealously watch every motion of every stranger, especially 

 in relation to their master's movables, objecting with surly 

 or angry protest to the removal of any property belonging to 

 a master. Wood tells us of a dog that pinned to the ground 

 a man who was simply and most innocently picking up from 

 the floor of a room a stray needle ; while another attacked a 

 man who helped himself to a ship biscuit. No matter the 

 value of the article, the dog recognised the property in both, 

 and in all similar, cases, as its master's, and it resents 

 dangerously it may be any interference with his property 

 in its master's absence. 



Certain curious questions occasionally arise in connection 

 with the ethics of crime in dogs, cats and other animals that 

 exhibit singular inconsistencies of conduct. Thus a dog 

 has been known to guard, with the utmost honesty, its own 

 master's property, while it did not scruple to steal that of 

 other people. Mrs. Mackellar had a fox terrier that ( when 

 he was very young threatened to become a notorious thief of 

 other people's goods, though he watched ours so faithfully.' 

 A cat never stole anything for herself, 'but she would 

 always do so for any of the dogs.' Another cat stole meat 

 to feed a starving one that had got itself imprisoned in a 

 deep hole (Wood). No doubt we have here a certain kind 



