Abstract
MR. LAYARD'S letter mentioning the bell-ringing cat leads me to send the following account of a wise old Scotch collie with which I was personally acquainted. Toby, belonging to my friend Mr. T. F. Hancock, formerly of Tyes Place, Staplefield, Sussex, was passionately fond of his vocation, but at the same time made much of in the parlour. On one occasion, while lying in front of the fire in the dining-room, he heard sheep going by the house along the farm-road. He ran to the window-seat and then to the door, at the same time looking imploringly at my friend's sisters, as if to beg them to let him out. This, however, they declined to do, and after one or two journeys between window and door, he ran to the long, old-fashioned bell-pull, rang the bell, stood at the door, and bolted out and round into the kitchen as soon as the servant appeared.
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WARD, J. [Letters to Editor]. Nature 20, 428 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020428d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020428d0
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