instance, a dog acquaintance of mine, on the advent of her
first puppies seemed to be exceedingly proud of them; she not only
brought them, one by one, to her mistress for admiration, but she also
brought them in to show to her master, and yet again, to myself, who
happened to be visiting her owner at the time. She deposited them, one
by one, at the feet of the person whose regard she solicited, and,
after they had been admired, she returned them to the kennel. Here, in
my opinion, was an instance of pride, which has its prototype or
exemplar in the pride of the young human mother who thinks that her baby
is the handsomest child that was ever born! The dog's actions cannot be
translated or interpreted otherwise. Again (and in this instance,
strange to relate, the proud parent was the male), a cat brought his
offspring, one by one, from the basement to my room, two stories above,
in order to exhibit them! He brought them, one at a time, and, after
each had been admired, carried them back to their box in the basement.
Loud were his purs and extravagant were the curl of his tail and the
arch of his back! No father of the genus Homo could more plainly evince
his pride in his baby than did this cat in his kittens. The mother cat
came with him on his first trip; she evidently did not quite comprehend,
at first, the intentions of her spouse. She soon found out, however,
that he meant no harm to her young, so she allowed him to work off his
superabundance of pride without let or hindrance.

Birds will defend their young to their uttermost abilities and will
often yield up their lives in unequal combats with the ravagers of their
nests. Last summer I saw two jays whip in a fair fight a large cat,
which had attempted to rob their nest. They seemed to have arranged the
order of combat with one another before they attacked the would-be
ravisher of their home. The male bird confined his attack to the cat's
head, while the female went at its body with beak and talons. The
song-sparrow which remembered the boy who killed the snake which was
about to devour its young, and whose story I have told elsewhere,
undoubtedly cherished and loved its young. The gratitude which could
change the timid, wild nature of a bird in such a manner must have had
its origin in a feeling, the depths of which can only be equalled in the
psychical habitudes of the most refined of human beings! As we ascend
higher in the scale of animal life, we find that new