QUADRUPEDS. 
35 5 
perfectly understood the conversation which concerned 
him. I had taken a bitch from Vienna to Paris; iu a 
very short time she comprehended French as well as Ger- 
man, of which I satisfied myself by repeating before her 
whole sentences in both languages.” 
Elephants habitually perform certain duties on the 
mere verbal promise of special rewards, which it would be 
very dangerous to withhold when the condition is accom- 
plished. 
But one of the most remarkable examples on record of 
this faculty, is the following story of a Spaniel, avouched 
by the personal knowledge of a zoologist of deserved repu- 
tation. “ One morning, as the lady to whom the spaniel 
belongs was lacing her boots, one of the laces broke. She 
turned to the dog, and playfully said, ‘ Oh dear ! I wish 
vou would find me another boot-lace ,’ and having managed 
with the broken one, thought no more about it. On the 
following morning, when she was again lacing her boots, 
her spaniel ran up to her with a new silken boot-lace in 
his mouth ; not only to her great amazement, but that of 
the family. Where the dog had obtained the boot-lace no 
one could tell; but, doubtless, he had purloined it from 
some workbox or similar repository.” * 
The same naturalist has mentioned several instances in 
which a communication was made by one animal to another 
of certain events that had occurred to the former, and of a 
definite and intelligent common action resulting. 
Every observant reader must be aware that the Brutes 
— especially those which, being domesticated, come more 
frequently under our notice — display many of what, in 
* Martin’s “History of the Hog,” 183. 
