Now, is not that a good laugh, quite free and affectionate, that is represented in the picture, Fig. 1, taken from the instantaneous photograph of a little fox-terrier bitch in my possession,
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| Fig. 2.—A Collie "Laughing all Over." From a photograph. |
which puts on this expression very prettily every time it would manifest pleasure or a great joy? Fig. 2 gives also the expression of a dog laughing all over. It is the portrait of a collie bitch. The animal has a very pleasant physiognomy. The French language has an expression, canin, for canine laughter, which the dictionaries define by saying that it is produced by the contraction of the canine muscle, or the muscle that lifts the angle of the lips; and they give it as the synonym of sardonic laughter, because it is produced on only one side of the mouth. Fig. 1 shows that this synonymy is not always just.
A friend of mine has a terrier which also laughs, and which has after a few months taught a spaniel, its habitual companion, to laugh.
This education of one animal by another is not so rare as might be supposed. I knew a little dog in Havana, a great friend of the cat of the house, that took from it the habit of moistening its paws with its tongue and washing its face with them.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature.
