368 



THE VAT. 



[chap. XI. 



the whole, it seems probable that the power in question may be due 

 to a highly developed *' sense of direction," like that which enables 

 some men so much to excel others in finding their way about cities, 

 or that which enables the inhabitants of Siberia to find their way 

 through woods or over hummocky ice, and who, though constantly 

 changing the direction they immediately pursue, yet keep their 

 main direction unchanged. 



In addition to all these cognitions of objects, and of the relations 

 between them, cats possess strong passions and, often at least, 

 affectionate feelings of personal attachment. 



The strength of their sexual feelings is notorious, and hardly less 

 so is the devotion of the mother cat to her young. This latter 

 emotion endures as long as she gives suck, and often, if a cat's 

 second litter of kittens be destroyed while one of the previous litter 

 remains, the .latter will be again taken into favour, and, resuming 

 its old mode of nourishment, have all the tenderness and affection 

 shown to it which was manifested towards it at first. Cats will 

 sometimes (as before mentioned) show great regard to individuals, 

 and will manifest it by expressive gestures and slight, affectionate 

 bites. These animals, then, have emotions, and they are able to 

 express their feelings by external signs. Some observers have 

 professed to detect more than half a hundred different expressions 

 in a cat's face, but however much exaggeration there may be in 

 such a statement, it is impossible to mistake their gestures of rage 

 and fear at the sight of a strange and threatening dog — gestures 

 well understood by the dog, and sufficient in most cases to keep him 

 at a safe distance. 



But it is not only by gestures that cats express their feelings. 

 Besides their hideous nocturnal howls, cats give expression to their 

 desires by gentle sounds. Almost everyone must have met with a 

 cat which by mewing expressed its wish for a door to be opened, or 

 which thus begged for a little milk. Cats then have a language of 

 their own, made up of sounds and gestures. 



Cats also have a will of their own, as all must know who have 

 tried to retain on the lap, a cat minded to go elsewhere, or Avho have 

 observed the determination with which they pursue the objects of 

 their desires. 



Manifestations of quite another kind from these quasi-intellectual 

 ones arc, however, also shown by cats. For they possess true 

 instincts,* and blindly follow innate promptings in pursuit of ends of 



* One of the to us unplcasing instincts 

 of the cat is that whidi pionipts it to 

 phiy with the captuied mouse instead of 

 killing it, the objectancl meaning of wliich 

 have been regarded as inex])licable. Jly 

 friend Professor I'alcy has made the 

 following suggestion as to tin; true utility 

 and meaning of this instinet. He 

 writes : — " Wlicn we observe carefully 

 the motions of a kitten iu playing with 

 a ball or a cork and a stnng, we shall 



sec that they are suggested by the very 

 same instincts which are exerted by a 

 cat in ]>laying with a disabled mouse. 

 In both there is the withdrawal and the 

 sudden pounce, and also the propelling 

 the motionless object with the claw. 

 It is a mistake to suppose that a kitten 

 is actuated solely by a love of sportive 

 ])lay. Those who sjieculate on the laws 

 which allow the existence of human and 

 animal suilering, alike, profess them- 



