From Thomas Bradfield 1 June 1871
2, Strand, W.C.
1 June 1871
Sir
The following instance of the perception in a dog may interest you. A lady I know, had a dog which used to listen very attentively to her while playing a concertina— the instrument had one note out of tune & the dog used whenever that was played to instantly begin whining—and this without any sign or instruction from the player. This incident I can assure you is a fact. The dog must have had some sense of harmony or how could it have discerned the change & marked its discernment by a whine.
Yours faithfully | Thomas Bradfield
Charles Darwin Esq
CD annotations
Footnotes
Summary
Instance of a dog able to discriminate a note played out of tune. [See Descent, 2d ed., p. 569.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7795
- From
- Thomas Bradfield
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Strand, 2
- Source of text
- DAR 89: 181–2
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7795,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7795.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19