his yelps meant, but there were in them an inflection, a
sonorousness, and a continuance quite different from those he uttered
when pursuing a passer-by or when going to meet a person coming toward
the house. Every one who has a watch dog is able to tell by the sound
of his barking when a person is coming up, and usually what sort of a
visitor it is.

The peasants' dogs of the southwest of France dislike the country
millers, because of the long whips which they are always carrying and
snapping, and with which the dogs, running after them, are often
struck. From as far off as the snapping of the whip can be heard, the
dogs come to wait for the millers and pursue them; and it is easy to
recognize when the millers are passing, by the behavior of the dogs.
There is in this also a significance, at once aggressive and
defensive, in the cries which one can, by giving a little attention,
soon learn to distinguish.

Another example of the reality of the various meanings of the cries of
the dog under different circumstances is afforded by the companies
that collect around a female in heat.

I have a very intelligent and experienced brach hound, the same which
with the bitch had to face the attack of the wolf. He amuses me much
at my country lunches. Hunting dogs which have been much with their
masters at lunch do not like to have the drinking glass offered them.
This dog was much afraid of the glass, and I had only to present it to
him at lunch time to make him keep his distance. I used to keep my
door open at lunch, for the amusement of observing how I could make
him stop exactly at the threshold without stepping over it. If he had
passed over it I could always send him back by casting toward him a
few drops of water from the bottom of the glass after drinking.
Sitting, as was his habit, on the sill of the door, with the tip of
his muzzle never extending beyond the plane of the panels, he would
follow my motions with the closest attention, reminding me, if I
failed to give him a sign of attention, by a discreet, plaintive cry,
that he was there. But if I touched my glass, he would spring up at
once; if I filled it, he would put himself on guard, utter a kind of
sigh, sneeze, lick his lips, yawn, and, shaking his ears briskly, make
little stifled cries. Then he would grow impatient, and more and more
watchful and nervous. When I lifted my glass to my lips he would draw
back, working gradually nearer to the farther door, and a