DELAYED IMITATION IN A CAT 



EDWARD R. WARREN 



Colorado Springs, Colorado 



The two cats whose behavior is described in the following 

 notes were own brothers, of the same litter, born in July, 1898, 

 on a ranch near Crested Butte, Gunnison county, Colorado. 

 As they were named, I shall refer to them hereafter by their 

 names, ''Torn" and "Snowball." The former was a large- 

 boned yellow and white cat, never very fleshy, the latter a 

 chunky, black animal, apparently smaller, but weighing nearly 

 as much as Tom. Both were castrated when eight or nine 

 months old. The winter of 1898-9 spent at the ranch with 

 the son of the owner, with the cats for company. Just how it 

 came about I do not remember, but Tom learned the trick of 

 coming up on my lap when I was sitting in a chair, thence 

 to my shoulder and on my outstretched arm and taking meat 

 held on a fork. Sometimes he would do it if I was standing up. 

 Snowball would never do this. 



I left the ranch the spring of 1899, but remained in the 

 vicinity and frequently visited there until late in the fall of 



1902. Whenever there at a meal, and that was quite often, 

 I usually fed Tom in this way for amusement, but none of the 

 members of my friend's family ever troubled themselves with 

 it. Snowball was invariably on hand at mealtimes, and his 

 appetite was as good as his brother's, but, though I used to 

 talk to him and coax him, he would never come up after the 

 meat. His "stunt" was to pull the meat from the fork with 

 his paw and convey it to his mouth that way, but only when 

 he could reach the fork from the floor. 



I was absent the winter of 1902-3, returning for a short time 

 in July, 1903, and Tom came up for the meat readily at the 

 first offer, and Snowball, as previously, refused. From July, 



1903, to October, 1905, I did not see the cats, but the last men- 

 tioned date made another visit, and as in 1903, Tom showed 

 he had not forgotten, and scrambled up at once when invited, 

 while Snowball did not. 



Then came a still longer interval, until January, 1909, before 



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