CAT GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 419 



of the cat ( crumbs attract birds, therefore I will wait 

 for birds when crumbs are scattered ' was as complete as 

 in the case of Dr. Frost's cat, but the reasoning in the 

 latter case seems to have proceeded a stage further 

 * therefore I will scatter crumbs to attract birds.' 



Now, in the face of the definite statement made by 

 Dr. Frost, that his cat did advance to this further stage of 

 reasoning, I have not felt justified in suppressing his 

 remarkable observation. And, as lending still further 

 credence to the account, I may quote the corroborative 

 observation of another correspondent in ' Nature,' which is 

 of value because forming an intermediate step between 

 the intelligence displayed by Dr. Klein's cat and that 

 displayed by Dr. Frost's. This correspondent says : 



A. case somewhat similar to that mentioned by Dr. Frost, of 

 a cat scattering crumbs, occurred here within my own know- 

 ledge. During the recent severe winter a friend was in the 

 habit of throwing crumbs outside his bedroom window. The 

 family have a fine black cat, which, seeing that the cmrnbs 

 brought birds, would occasionally hide herself behind some 

 shrubs, and when the birds came for their breakfast, would 

 pounce out upon them with varying success. The crumbs had 

 been laid out as usual one afternoon, but left untouched, and 

 during the night a slight fall of snow occurred. On looking out 

 next morning my friend observed puss busily engaged scratching 

 away the snow. Curious to learn what she sought, he waited, 

 and saw her take the crumbs up from, the cleared space and lay 

 them one by one after another on the snow. After doing this 

 she retired behind the shrubs to wait further developments. 

 This was repeated on two other occasions. 1 



Taking, then, these three cases together, we have an 

 ascending series in the grades of intelligence from that 

 displayed by Dr. Klein's cat, which merely observed that 

 crumbs attracted birds, through that of the cat which 

 exposed the concealed crumbs for the purpose of attracting 

 birds, to that of Dr. Frost's cat, which actually sprinkled 

 the crumbs. Therefore, although, if the last-mentioned or 

 most remarkable case had stood alone, I should not have 

 felt justified in quoting it, as we find it thus led up to by 

 other and independent observations, I do not feel that I 

 1 Nature, vol. xx., p. 197. 



