darwin, on the dog

Dogs Prepare for Sleep (From The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals)

Dogs, when they wish to go to sleep on a carpet or other hard surface, generally turn round and round and scratch the ground with their fore-paws in a senseless manner, as if they intended to trample down the grass and scoop out a hollow, as no doubt their wild parents did, when they lived on open grassy plains or in the woods.

 -- quoted in Praise of the Dog: An Anthology, Edith Bicknell, compiler (New York: E.P. Dutton), 1902, p. 170.