But when she has once located them, she is not allowed
to return and visit them, or pass that way again. So the account by
Dr. Washburn of platoons of dogs coming in turn, and peaceably, to
feed on a dead donkey in the streets of Constantinople, would seem
to be most naturally explained by some dim recognition of rights.
Rook communities have not received the attention and investigation
which they deserve, but their actions are certainly worthy of
attention. Concerning the sense of ownership in dogs and other
mammals opinions differ, and yet many facts are most naturally
explained on such a supposition.
Just one more question in this connection, for we are in the
borderland or twilightland where it is much safer to ask questions
than to attempt to answer them. How do you explain the "instinctive"
fear of man on the part of wild and fierce animals? They certainly
do not quail before his brute strength, for a blow at such a time
breaks the charm and insures an attack. They quail before his eye
and look. Is not this the answering of a personality in the animal
to the personality in man; a recognition of something deeper than
bone and muscle? And may not, as Mr. Darwin has urged, this fear in
the presence of a higher personality be the dim foreshadowing of an
awe which promises indefinitely better things? Is, after all, the
attachment of a dog to his master something far deeper than an
appetite for bones or pats, or a fear of kicks?
A host of other and similar questions throng upon us here, to no one
of which we can give a definite answer.
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