Reason and Instinct. 5469 



very early in the morning, and met us up there. He always went to 

 the cottage where we assembled, and sitting on a hillock in front of it, 

 which commanded a view of the road by which we came, waited for 

 us ; when he saw us coming, he met us with a peculiar kind of grin on 

 his face, expressing, as well as words could, his half-doubt of being 

 well received, in consequence of his having come without permission : 

 the moment he saw 1 was not angry with him, he threw off all his 

 affectation of shyness, and barked and jumped upon me with the most 

 grateful delight." (* Highland Sports,' p. 108.) Again; "A shepherd 

 once, to prove the quickness of his dog, who was lying before the fire 

 in the house where we were talking, said to me, in the middle of a sen- 

 tence concerning something else, ' I'm thinking, sir, the cow is in the 

 potatoes.' Though he purposely laid no stress on these words, and 

 said them in a quiet, unconcerned tone of voice, the dog, who appeared 

 to be asleep, immediately jumped up, and leaping through the open 

 window, scrambled up the turf roof of the house, from which he could 

 see the potato-field. He then, not seeing the cow there, ran and looked 

 into the byre, where she was, and, rinding that all was right, came back 

 to the house. After a short time, the shepherd said the same words 

 again, and the dog repeated his look-out. But, on the false alarm 

 being a third time given, the dog got up, and wagging his tail, looked 

 his master in the face with so comical an expression of interrogation, 

 that we could not help laughing aloud at him ; on which, with a slight 

 growl, he laid himself down in his warm corner, with an offended air, 

 and as if determined not to be made a fool of again." (' Highland 

 Sports," p. 111.) If need were, I could parallel these instances by 

 others precisely analogous, from the biographies of different animals 

 who were intimate acquaintances of my own ; my old friend Pepper 

 (Zool. 2337) being one of them; a very excellent water-spaniel retriever 

 bitch, belonging to one of my oldest friends and allies with whom 1 

 used to spend much time, another ; a third, my own property, and so 

 on. But I should only be occupying space and time unnecessarily 

 by so doing. 



Now, when we fairly and impartially consider the numerous and 

 unquestionable instances and modes of intercommunication and 

 mutual intelligence possessed by animals, not only, and in a very 

 remarkable degree, among domesticated species, but also by those 

 which are living in their natural wild condition, I am not prepared to 

 assent to the following dogma : — " Men, who through some defect in 

 the organs, want words, yet fail not to express their universal ideas by 

 signs, which serve them instead of general words ; a faculty which we 



