De sollertia animalium

I am not unaware that you will think that my examples are rather a hodge-podge; but it is not easy to find naturally clever animals doing anything which illustrates merely one of their virtues. Their probity, rather, is revealed in their love of offspring and their cleverness in their nobility; then, too, their craftiness and intelligence is inseparable from their ardour and courage. Those, nevertheless, who are intent on classifying and defining each separate occasion will find that dogs give the impression of a mind that is at once civil and superior when they turn away from those who sit on the ground - which is presumably referred to in the lines[*](Homer, Odyssey, xiv. 30 f.; cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 146; Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 24; Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 3. 6 (1380 a 24).)

1. The dogs barked and rushed up, but wise Odysseus
2. Cunningly crouched; the staff slipped from his hand;

for dogs cease attacking those who have thrown themselves down and taken on an attitude that resembles humility.[*](Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 48, of the lion.)

They relate further that the champion of the Indian dogs, one greatly admired by Alexander,[*](There are nearly as many emendations of this phrase as there have been scholars interested in Plutarch’s text. Van Herwerden’s version, as having the liveliest sense, has been preferred. It is by no means certain, however, though supported by Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 1; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 149; cf. also Pollux, v. 43-44 and the parallels cited by Bethe ad loc. See also Aelian, iv. 19 and Diodorus, xvii. 94.) when a stag was let loose and a boar and a bear, lay quiet and still and disregarded them; but when a lion appeared, it sprang up at once to prepare for the fray, showing clearly that it chose to match itself with the lion[*](Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 149 f., adds the elephant as a worthy match.) and scorned all the others.

Hounds that hunt hares, if they themselves kill them, enjoy pulling them to pieces[*](So break up; Xenophon, Cynegetica, vii. 9.) and eagerly lap up the blood; but if, as frequently happens, a hare in desperation exhausts all its breath in a final sprint and expires, the hounds, when they come upon it dead, will not touch it at all, but stand there wagging their tails, as much as to say that they do not strive for food, but for victory and the honour of winning.