1..a.e, OVER-EDUCATION OF DOGS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:] Sra,—How do we know that in inviting dogs to the use of words Sir John Lubbock is developing their intelligence ? Are we sure that he is not asking them to descend to a lower level than their own, in teaching them to communicate with us through our proper forms of speech, unnecessary to them ? I can vouch for the truth of the following story. A young keeper, living about twelve miles east of Winchester, on leaving his situation: gave away a fox-terrier, which had been his constant companion for some months; he then took another place in the north of Hampshire, near the borders of Berkshire, in a part of the. country to which he had never been. The new owner of the dog took her with him to a village in Sussex ; before she had been there long she disappeared, and after a short time found her old master in the woods at his new home. As I have said before, he had never been there before, neither had she. Rather ungratefully, he again gave the dog away, this time to a maD living some way north of Berkshire ; she came back to him in a. few days, and, I am happy to say, is now to be allowed to stay with the master of her choice. Can such a nature need to be, taught our clumsy language.—I am, Sir, Sm.,
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