292 SENSITIVENESS. 



gerously resented : they have the same kind of dislike that 

 the human child has of being laughed at, of being made a 

 fool or butt of, for instance, in or by the practical jokes of 

 man. The siamang is indignant under ridicule (Cassell). 

 Of one of his fighting dogs Berkeley says, ' Nothing hurt 

 him more than to pretend to laugh at him.' 



Of a Skye-terrier, Eomanes says, ' Nothing that could 

 happen displeased him so much as being laughed at, when 

 he did not intend to be ridiculous : ' for dogs and other ani- 

 mals perform many of their tricks with a special view to 

 man's amusement, in which case his laughter is accepted as 

 the expected expression of his commendation, the wished for 

 indication that their efforts at pleasantry are successful. 

 ' The signs of dislike,' in this terrier, ' were unequivocal.' 

 If ridiculed when unsuccessful in catching flies on a window 

 pane, he was ' evidently much annoyed.' 



Similar wincing and anger under ridicule were exhibited 

 in another Scotch terrier, which worried by mistake an imi- 

 tation toy cat and was laughed at for his pains by his mis- 

 tress and her visitors (Wood). In such a case a dog may 

 be sensitive enough to feel the additional affront of being 

 laughed at by a mistress in the presence of strangers : it 

 may consider itself affronted * before company,' as a child 

 would. 



Many other instances are on record of dogs hating to be 

 mocked or in any way made mere game of by man. Of one 

 we are told that he could not bear to be laughed at. 'If 

 a stranger laughed at, or even pointed to him in fun, he 

 felt insulted' ('Animal World'). In this and in similar 

 cases, a dog will suffer a master to do what a stranger must 

 not dare. He may regard the one as privileged to make fun 

 of, as well as with, him if he will, and he takes it in good 

 part, or at least passively. But the very same action on the 

 part of a stranger may be fiercely, and even dangerously, 

 resented, and he will be wise who accepts the first furious 

 growl of the indignant animal as a danger-warning. 



Again Darwin remarks, ' Several observers have stated 

 that monkeys certainly dislike being laughed at ;' to which 

 Eomanes, who lives in the neighbourhood of the Zoological 



