Ch ap. I II . Men tal Powers. 7 3 



voluntarily imitates an action performed by man, until in the 

 ascending scale we come to monkeys, which are well known to 

 be ridiculous mockers. Animals, however, sometimes imitate 

 each other's actions : thus two species of wolves, which had been 

 reared by dogs, learned to bark, as does sometimes the jackal, 16 

 but whether this can be called voluntary imitation is another 

 question. Birds imitate the songs of their parents, and some- 

 times of other birds; and parrots are notorious imitators of any 

 sound which they often hear. Dureau de la Malle gives an 

 account n of a dog reared by a cat, who learnt to imitate the 

 well-known action of a cat licking her paws, and thus washing 

 her ears and face; this was also witnessed by the celebrated 

 naturalist Audouin. I have received several confirmatory ac- 

 counts ; in one of these, a dog had not been suckled by a cat, 

 but had been brought up with one, together with kittens, and 

 had thus acquired the above habit, which he ever afterwards 

 practised during his life of thirteen years. Dureau de la Malle's 

 dog likewise learnt from the kittens to play with a ball by roll- 

 ing it about with his fore paws, and springing on it. A corre- 

 spondent assures me that a cat in his house used to put her paws 

 into jugs of milk having too narrow a mouth for her head. A 

 kitten of this cat soon learned the same trick, and practised it 

 ever afterwards, whenever there was an opportunity. 



The parents of many animals, trusting to the principle of 

 imitation in their young, and more especially to their instinctive 

 or inherited tendencies, may be said to educate them. "We see 

 this when a cat brings a live mouse to her kittens ; and Dureau 

 de la Malle has given a curious account (in the paper above 

 quoted) of his observations on hawks which taught their young 

 dexterity, as well as judgment of distances, by first dropping 

 through the air dead mice and sparrow's, which the young 

 generally failed to catch, and then bringing them live birds 

 and letting them loose. 



Hardly any faculty is more important for the intellectual 

 progress of man than Attention. Animals clearly manifest this 

 power, as when a cat w-atches by a hole and prepares to spring 

 on its prey. Wild animals sometimes become so absorbed when 

 thus engaged, that they may be easily approached. Mr. Bartlett 

 has given me a curious proof how variable this faculty is in 

 monkeys. A man w T ho trains monkeys to act in plays, used to 

 purchase common kinds from the Zoological Society at the price 

 of five pounds for each ; but he offered to give double the price, 



16 'The Variation of Animals and lr 'Annales ties So. Nat.' (lz% 



Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. Series), torn. xxii. p. 397. 

 P 2T. 



