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Show 44 THE PRINCIPLE OF CHAP. I. and in this case there could have been uo intention of n1aking a cautious approach. Dogs after voiding their excrement often make with all four feet a few scratches backwards, even on a bare stone pavement, as if for the purpose of covering up their excrement with earth, in nearly the same manner as do cats. vVolYeS and jackals behave in the Zoological Gardens in exactly the sarr1e manner, yet, as I am assured by the keepers, neither wolves, jackals, nor foxes, when they have the means of doing so, ever cover up their excrement, any more than do dogs. All these animals, however, bury superfluous food. Hence, if we rightly understand the meaning of the above cat-like habit, of which there can be little doubt, we have a purposeless remnant of an habitual movement, which was originally followed by some remote progenitor of the dog-genus for a definite purpose, and which has been retained for a prodigious length of time. Dogs and jackals 15 take much pleasure in rolling and rubbing their necks and backs on carrion. The odour seems delightful to them, though dogs at least do not eat carrion. Mr. Bartlett has observed wolves for me, and has given them carrion, but has never seen them roll on it. I have heard it remarked, and I believe it to be true, that the larger dogs, which are probably descended from wolves, do not so often roll in carrion as do smaller dogs, which are probably descended from jackals. When a piece of brown biscuit is offered to a terrier of mine and she is not hungry (and I have heard of similar instances), she first tosses it about and worries it, as if it were a rat or other prey; she then repeatedly rolls on it precisely as if it were a piece of u See 1\Ir. F. H. Salvin's ac-count of a tame jnclml in 'Land n.nd Wutor,' October, ~869. SERVICEABLE ASSOCIATED HABITS. 45 carrion, and at last eats it. It would appear that an imaginary relish has to be given to the distasteful morsel; and to effect this the dog acts in his habitual manner, as if the biscuit was a live animal or smelt like carrion, though he knows better than we do that this is not the case. I have seen this sarne terrier act in the same manner after killing a little bird or n1ouse. Dogs scratch themselves by a rapid movement of one of their hind feet; and when their backs are rubbed with a stick, so strong is the habit, that they cannot help rapidly scratching the air or the ground in a useless and ludicrous manner. The terrier just alluded to, when thus scratched with a stick, will sometimes show ~er delight by another habitual movement, namely, by hcking the air as if it were my hand. ~orses ~cratch. themselves by nibbling those parts of the1r bodies 'vh1ch they can reach with their teeth; but 1nare comtnonly one horse shows another where he wants to be scratched; and they then nibble each other. A friend whose attent~on I had called to the subject, obs.e rved that when he rubbed his horse's neck' the an1mal protruded his . head, uncovered hjs teeth, and n1oved his jaws, exactly as if nibbling another horse's neck, for he could never have nibbled his own neck. If a horse is much tickled, as when curry-combed, his wish to. bite something becomes so intolerably strong, that he '~Ill clatter his teeth together, and though not vicious, h1te his groom. At the san1e time from habit he cl~sely depr~sses his ears, so as to protect them from bmng bitten, as if he were fighting with another horse. A horse when eager to start on a journey makes the nearest approach which he can to the habitual movement of progression by pawing the ground. Now when horses in their stalls are about to be fed and are eager for their corn, they paw the pavement or the straw. |