416 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



which he used to draw objects from nature, reversed on wood. 

 The cat seeing her image in this glass made several attempts to 

 investigate it, striking at it, &c. Then coming apparently to the 

 conclusion that there was something between her and the other 

 animal, she very slily and cautiously approached it, keeping her 

 eye on it all the while, and struck her paw around behind the 

 mirror, becoming seemingly much surprised at finding nothing 

 there. This was done repeatedly, until she was at last convinced 

 that it was beyond her comprehension, or she lost interest in 

 the matter. 



Mr. T. B. Groves communicates an almost precisely 

 similar observation to ' Nature ' (vol. xx., p. 291), of a cat 

 which, on first seeing his own reflection in a mirror, tried 

 to fight it. Meeting with resistance from the glass, the 

 cat next ran behind the mirror. Not finding the object 

 of his search, he again came to the front, and while keep- 

 ing his eyes deliberately fixed on the image, felt round 

 the edge of the glass with one paw, whilst with his head 

 twisted round to the front he assured himself of the per- 

 sistence of the reflection. He never afterwards conde- 

 scended to notice a mirror. 



The following is communicated to me by a corre- 

 spondent whose name I cannot obtain permission to pub- 

 lish. I am sure, however, that it is communicated in 

 good faith, and the incident can scarcely be supposed to 

 have been due to accident. After describing the cat and 

 the parrot in their amiable relationship, my correspondent 

 proceeds : 



One evening there was no one in the kitchen. Cook had 

 gone upstairs, and left a bowl full of dough to rise by the fire. 

 Shortly after, the cat rushed up after her, mewing, and making 

 what signs she could for her to go down ; then she jumped up 

 and seized her apron, and tried to drag her down. As she was 

 in such a state of excitement cook went, and found * Polly ' 

 shrieking, calling out, flapping her wings and struggling 

 violently, ' up to her knees ' in dough, and stuck quite fast. 



No doubt if she had not been rescued she would have sunk 

 in the morass and been smothered. 



I shall here introduce two or three cases to show the 

 ingenious devices to which clever cats will resort for the 

 purpose of capturing prey. 



