13 MAY 1905, Page 16

[To TIM EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Suz,—I do not

know whether you are still interested in dog stories; but if you are, the following facts, collected on Perth Station platform on the night of April 29th, may interest you. I observed a Skye terrier, which had the marked characteristic of one white fore-paw, intently watching the guard. After that official had shown his lantern with the green light, the dog rushed along the platform and barked furiously at the driver of the train. I must confess that even to my human intelligence the conjunction of cause and effect in the showing of the green light and the shunting of the train did not strike me, but I was concerned as to the safety of the animal. Turning to the porter who was attending to my wants, he told me that the dog was a stray one ; that he had only become attached to the station for three weeks ; that he regularly superintended the starting of the trains in the fashion I have described; and that, in addition, he had been the means a few days previous of discovering a tramp in a railway carriage in a siding, and insisted in dragging the station constable by the coat to the spot, with the result that poor Mr. Tramp was then undergoing fifteen days' imprison- ment. With some small experience of animals, I have never before come across an instance where a dog in the two cases I have given so rapidly appreciated cause and effect. The guard, he found, was the train starter ; the constable the