630 Sir James Crkhton-Broivne [May 3, 



opinion is that the anthropoid apes exhibit a preferential use of the 

 right hand. 



It is to be borne in mind that the upper limbs in the monkey are 

 still largely used for locomotion, in which both sides must equally 

 participate if progress in a straight line is to be accomplished, and 

 are only to a limited degree manipulatory and prehensile in gathering 

 and shelling nuts or pods, in opening shell-fish, in pulling up roots, 

 in picking thorns or burrs from its fur, or in hunting for parasites. 

 And we should not, therefore, expect anything like such a diyision of 

 labour as in man when they are emancipated from that more seryile 

 and automatic office. But whereyer the upper limbs haye functions 

 assigned to them other than locomotion, diyergence will, I fancy, 

 begin ; and I am disposed to belieye that the first dawnings of right- 

 handedness are to be recognised not only in the monkey, but much 

 lower down in the animal kingdom. 



The felliiidce, or cats, use their fore-paws not only in walking 

 and running, but in striking their prey, in performing their aVjlutions 

 and in many playful acts, and as regards them Mr. Frank Buckland 

 affirmed that the cat kind seize their prey with the right paw and 

 strike it with the left. Sir Joseph Fayrer, who has seen much of 

 lions and tigers in their natiye haunts, and whom I consulted, is 

 under the impression that in all feline animals the right paw leads. 

 To test the matter I got 28 ladies who are deyoted to their cats, to 

 keep them under strict suryeillance for six months, and the returns 

 made to me betray, I think, incipient right-handedness. In 7 cats the 

 right paw was inyariably used first in washing the face ; in one cat 

 only was the left paw always used first in this operation, and in 20 

 cats both paws were used indifferently. In 1-4 cats the right paw was 

 used first and principally in playing with a ball, and in only 4 was 

 the left so used The indication is exceeding trifling, but it is there. 



But lower down than the felinid^, eyen amongst the birds, 

 differential use of the limbs is alleged. In them there is inyersion of 

 the relations of the limbs, for the fore-limbs or wings, while anatomi- 

 cally homologous with the fore-limbs in the mammalia, are physio- 

 logically homologous with the hind limbs, for locomotion is their 

 duty, while holding, scraping, striking and other moyements of a like 

 nature are performed by the hind limbs. In birds, therefore, we 

 should look for fore-shadowings of lop-sidedness in the legs and claws, 

 and that is where they haye been found. Dr. Ogle studied the 

 parrots and found that of 86 of them 6:-) inyariably perched on the 

 right leg and accepted any hon houche offered with the left claw, 

 while 28 inyaria])ly perched on the left leg and grasped witli the right 

 claw. The ])resent keeper of the parrot house at Kegeiit's Park, who 

 has been making obser\'ations for me, entirely agrees with Dr. Ogle 

 and says a yery large majority of })arr()ts perch on the right leg and 

 accept offerings with the left. 



But to return to man, it is indisputable that right-handedness has 



