122 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



served that the door is opened by the hand grasping the 

 handle and moving the latch. Next she must reason, by 

 * the logic of feelings ' If a hand can do it, why not a 

 paw ? Then, strongly moved by this idea, she makes the 

 first trial. The steps which follow have not been ob- 

 served, so we cannot certainly say whether she learns by a 

 succession of trials that depression of the thumb-piece con- 

 stitutes the essential part of the process, or, perhaps more 

 probably, that her initial observations supplied her with 

 the idea of clicking the thumb-piece. But, however this 

 may be, it is certain that the pushing with the hind feet 

 after depressing the latch must be due to adaptive reasoning 

 unassisted by observation ; and only by the concerted 

 action of all her limbs in the performance of a highly com- 

 plex and most unnatural movement is her final purpose 

 attained. 



Again, several very similar cases are communicated to 

 me of cats spontaneously, or without tuition, learning 

 to knock knockers and ring bells. Of course in both 

 cases the animals must have observed the use to which 

 knockers and bells are put, and when desiring a door to be 

 opened, employ these signals for the purpose. It betokens 

 no small amount of observation and reasoning in a cat to 

 jump at a knocker with the expectation of thereby sum- 

 moning a servant to open the door especially as in some 

 of the cases the jump is not a random jump at the 

 knocker, but a deliberate and complex action, having for 

 its purposes the raising and letting fall of the knocker. 

 For instance, Mr. Belshaw, writing to ' Nature ' (vol. xix., 

 p. 659), says : 



I was sitting in one of the rooms, the first evening there, and 

 hearing a loud knock at the front door was told not to heed it, 

 as it was only this kitten asking admittance. Not believing it, 

 I watched for myself, and very soon saw the kitten jump onto 

 the door, hang on by one leg, and put the other fore-paw right 

 through the knocker and rap twice. 



In such cases the action closely resembles that of 

 opening thumb-latches, but clearly is performed with 

 the purpose of summoning some one else to open the 

 door. Wonderful, however, as these cases of summoning 



