THE GREAT DOG-SUPERSTITION 269 
beak and hiss and strike at his legs, showing as 
much suspicion and “sense of proprietorship ” as 
a dog does when it barks and snaps at a visitor. 
Its owner’s arrival would be greeted with demonstra- 
tions of affection and joy, and following him into 
the house it would spend an hour or two very 
happily if allowed to sit on his feet, or nestling close 
against them on the hearth-rug. 
The behaviour of this poor teal might seem a 
very great thing, but it amounts to very little 
after all; the memory that all animals have, and 
perhaps a little judgement—the “small dose of 
reason” which Huber found that even insects 
possessed—and attachment to the beings it was 
accustomed to see and associate with, and who 
attended to all its wants and gently caressed it. 
In the matter of the affections it has no advantage 
even over Darwin’s celebrated snail. No doubt the 
self-sacrificing snail proved too much for Darwin’s 
argument, as Professor Mivart has pointed out; 
fortunately the case of the teal, which can be 
substantiated, does not prove too much for the 
argument contained in this article. To be astonished 
at the display of such faculties and affections in a 
bird so low down in the scale would show ignorance 
of Nature. And there is no doubt that most men 
are very ignorant about her; so ignorant that if 
the teal had the place in our life which belongs to 
the dog, and had been with us for centuries, a 
companion and pet in our houses to the exclusion 
of other kinds, we should now believe that it 
