i20 OF INSTINCT. Sect. XVI. u. i. 



a hundred crows at once preying upon mufcles ; each crow 

 took a mufcle Up into the air twenty or forty yards high, and 

 let it fall on the (tones, and thus by breaking the fheil, got pof- 

 ieflion of the animal. — A certain philofopher (I think it was 

 Anaxagoras) walking along the fea-fhore to gather fhelis, one 6f 

 thefe unlucky birds miftaking his bald head for a ftone, drop- 

 ped a ihejl fifh upon it, and killed at once a philofopher and an 

 cylivr. 



The Martin, hirundo urbica, is faid by Linnaeus to dwell on 

 the outfide of houfes in Europe under the eaves, and to return 

 with the early foliage. And that, when it has built, the fpar- 

 row, fringilla domdtica, frequently occupies the finifhed nelt ; 

 but that the martin convoking its companions, while fome guard 

 the captive enemy, others bring clay, exactly clofe up the en- 

 trarice, and fly away leaving the intruder to be fuffocated. Syft. 

 Natttr. PafT. Hirundo. A fimilar relation was printed many 

 years ago iti the Gentleman's Magazine. 



Our domeftic animals, that have fome liberty, are alfo pofTefT- 

 ed of fome peculiar traditional knowledge : dogs and cats have 

 been forced into each other's foeiety, though naturally animals 

 of a very different kind, and have hence learned from each other 

 to eat dog's grafs (agroftis canina) when they are lick, to promote 

 vomiting. I have feen a cat miftake the blade of barley for 

 this grafs, which evinces it is an acquired knowledge. They 

 have alfo learnt of each other to cover their excrement and urine ; 

 —about a fpoonful of water was fpilt upon my hearth from the 

 tea-kettle, and I obferved a kitten cover it with alhes. Hence 

 this mult alfo be an acquired art as the creature miftook the ap- 

 plication of it. 



To preferve their fur clean, and efpecially their whifkers, cats 

 warn their faces, and generally quite behind their ears, every time 

 they eat. As they cannot lick thofe places with their tongues, 

 they firft wet the infide of the leg with faliva, and then repeat- 

 edly wafh their faces with it, which muft originally be an efledt 

 of reafoning, becaufe a means is ufed to produce an effect 5 and 

 feems afterwards to be taught or acquired by imitation, like the 

 greateft part of human arts. 



Thefe animals feem to pofTefs femething like an additional 

 fenfe by means of their whifkers ; which have perhaps fome 

 analogy to the antenna? of moths and butterflies. The whifkers 

 of cats confifl not only of the long hairs on their upper lips, but 

 they have alfo four or five long hairs ftanding up from each eye- 

 brow, and alfo two or three on each cheek ; all which when 

 the animal eredts them, make with their points fo many parts 

 •f the periphery of a circle, of an extent at leaft equal to the 



circumference 



