266 Animal Humor. [May, 
tion, too, that this self-imposed charity of the young dog was 
regularly repeated under similar conditions. An instance may 
be stated, as it excited in us who watched from the window 
both amusement and admiration. Though there was no snow, 
the day was extremely cold. The old dog wanted to go out, 
and Dick, of his own accord, took charge of him. I verily be- 
lieve that the conception of the young dog was that the old 
dog stood in danger of getting frozen from inability to find his 
way back to the house. But the old fellow, who does nothing 
but eat and sleep, is as fat as a bear about hibernation time. 
He fairly waddles with his environment of adipose tissue. Not 
so his youthful guide, who is wiry and lean from incessant activ- 
ity. Now old Maje, feeling no discomfort, was in no haste to 
return ; but poor Dick stood shivering with the severity of the 
weather, and actually whined in his impatience to get the old 
dog home again. Still, notwithstanding the provoking insensi- 
bility of the old dog, his young benefactor did not leave hima 
moment until he had him safely housed once more. 
On this twenty-ninth day of February I went to see a seal on 
exhibition in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It had just been 
captured in the Raritan River, but a little below the city. The 
animal had fallen victim to a habit well understood by fishermen in 
other parts of the world, that of visiting a seine for the purpose 
of stealing fish. The difference was that this was a young seal, 
— it weighed but one hundred pounds, —and was not up to the 
tricks of the old ones, who knew the ins and the outs, and could 
elude the fishermen. This baby seal was rather pretty. Its 
sides were’ mottled with quasi-leopard spots on a brown ground. 
The species was Phoca vitulina, the calf-seal, so called because of 
a calf-like cry which the species can make. There was nothing 
calvish in the conduct of the captive, however. Its captors were 
attentive to its wants, and really very kind to it. One of them 
undertook to pat it on the head, and got an ugly bite for his 
goodness. And what a head, so like that of a highly intelligent 
dog; well might Cuvier call the group Callocephalus, the beau- 
tiful-headed beasts, so pretty are they, and so knowing, with their 
large, black, lustrous eyes. Now, among the quadrupedal mam- 
mals, the seals almost seem to lead off the Fducabilia, or intet- 
ligent animals, in cranial excellence, owing to their high, thin- 
boned skulls and their large and finely convoluted brains. 
It must then be that the seal is not without a faculty for fun. 
How great its capacity for instruction is, we know. I was greatly 
EEE AENA OAIR TEN AEE ME E ooo a E NEE ENTE acl te a E 
