DO ANIMALS REASON ?
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:] SIR,—I have more than once seen a dog act in the way described by your correspondent Mr. Robertson in your June 26th issue. I had a terrier in Canada who used to lie on a sofa-cushion in the parlour. My landlady objecting, I forbade him to do so, and during the daytime he was obedient; but my landlady said he slept there at night, because the cushion was always pressed down. I often tried to catch him, but without success, till it struck me that he heard me get out of bed and then left his own. One morning when it was just beginning to get light I rose softly and with only a stick in band went into the parlour. There he lay fast asleep. I knocked the stick on the floor ; in an instant he was down and making for the door. I said : "Oh, 'Poppet' !" Though I did not beat him, he never used that couch again. Another peculiarity of this dog was that he never would take food from any one but myself, though he might be ever so hungry. I used to come home at night, eat my dinner, and then give him his while he sat on a chair and watched me. One day I had hot leg-of-mutton, and my landlady had put cold beef also on the table. After finishing, I cut some cold beef for the dog. He approached it with a look of infinite scorn, then turned up his nose at me, evidently saying :—" You eat hot mutton and give me cold beef. Pie!" After a time I said : "Oh! you are not hungry," and placed it on the sideboard. 'Poppet' lay down in his corner with an air of "I don't care." All next day my landlady coaxed him in vain to eat. After I had finished I took down the same plate as the day before. Though famishing, the dog again refused it and went and lay down. I said: "Oh! you are not hungry," and bent down to take it up. But this was more than ' Poppet ' could stand ; he rushed at it and gobbled it down in a rage; but after that always took what I gave him. Certainly animals do reason.—I am,
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