nces I have met with of talking dogs, but
my brother had a beautiful little spaniel, named Doll, who was an
indefatigable hunter after woodcocks and snipes. Doll would come home
in the evening after a hard day's sport, wet, tired and dirty, and
then deposit herself on the rug before the fire. Happening one day to
pull her ear gently when in this state, she expressed her dislike to
be disturbed by a sort of singing noise. By repeating this from day to
day, and saying "Sing, Doll," she would utter notes of a somewhat
musical tone, and continue for some time after I had ceased to touch
her ear, to the amusement and surprise of those who heard her. Poor
Doll! I shall never see your like again, either for beauty or
intelligence. If she was affronted she would come to me, at a distance
of four miles, remain some time, and then return to her master.

A small cur, blind of one eye, lame, ugly, old, and somewhat selfish,
yet possessed of great shrewdness, was usually fed with three large
dogs. Watching his opportunity, he generally contrived to seize the
best bit of offal or bone, with which he retreated into a recess, the
opening to which was so small that he knew the other dogs could not
follow him into it, and where he enjoyed his repast without the fear
of molestation.

Early habits predominate strongly in dogs, and indeed in other
animals. At the house of a gentleman in Wexford, out of four dogs kept
to guard the premises, three of them would always wag their tails, and
express what might be called civility, on the approach of any
well-dressed visitors; manifesting, on the other hand, no very
friendly feelings towards vagrants or ill-dressed people. The
fourth,--a sort of fox-hound,--which, as a puppy, had belonged to a
poor man, always seemed to recognise beggars and ill-dressed
passengers as old familiar friends, growling at well-attired
strangers, barking vehemently at gigs, and becoming almost frantic
with rage at a four-wheeled carriage.

The olfactory nerves of a dog are quite extraordinary, and it is said
that, making allowance for difference of corporeal bulk, they are
about four times larger than those of a man. Some dogs, however, seem
to excel in acuteness of hearing, and others in peculiar powers of
vision.

We quote the following from the "Percy Anecdotes:"--

"One day, when Dumont, a tradesman of the Rue St. Denis, was walking
in the Boulevard St. Antoine with a friend, he offered to lay a wager
with th