226 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
available a full history of the development of these movements in an 
animal, in which they finally reach extraordinary perfection. 
There is no comparison between a puppy’s range of co-ordinated 
movements at three months and those of a kitten of the same age. 
That in the course of evolution the possession of sharp nails has had 
much to do with this, I feel satisfied. 
In both dog and cat the cortical centre of the brain for the fore-limb 
is readily excited by artificial stimulation, but this crude method and 
general result, do not bring out the differences that the animal can, by 
its own will accomplish, and serves, when taken with the facts of the 
animal’s actual life, only to show how very imperfect are our physiological 
imitations of will-power in these animals. 
None of our domestic animals has such power over the fore-limbs as 
the cat, and this is well established when the animal is even two months 
old. The development, as my diary shows, is very rapid when once it 
begins. 
And this is closely related to the play of the kitten. 
Play is especially instructive. The young animal has an excess of 
vital energy. Very soon this begins to express itself in imitative actions. 
I hope my diaries will furnish scope for comparison of the puppy and the 
kitten as regards play. Herein the animals differ widely and reflect to 
perfection their psychic moods. 
The crouching, lying in wait, the concealment of which I have made 
several records for the kitten, are only late and comparatively feebly de- 
veloped in the dog—all of which is, of course, related to the manner in 
which the mature animal secures its prey in the wild state. 
The Canidæ hunt either alone or in packs, and rely on swiftness and 
concerted action. 
The Felidæ lie in wait, mostly alone or in pairs, and spring on their 
prey. So the kitten, when quite young, does not wait for a mouse to 
appear, but gives its instinct free scope in its attacks on flies, and if these 
be not forthcoming, it will, out of something, construct imaginary prey 
for its gratification. 
Again, the cat is very slow to develop, as my diary shows, the social 
instincts so far as man and other animals are concerned. How seldom a 
cat seems even to miss its old friends, if indeed they are to it friends. 
Not that I believe the cat an entirely ungrateful animal. It is very 
sensitive to good and to bad treatment, but it is not dependent on man 
either physically or psychicaily. The cat may, of its own accord, take 
to the fields and woods to secure an independent existence, and so long as 
the environment is favourable, it may, it would seem, be utterly oblivious 
alike of friends and foes. 
This independence was shown quite early in the case of my kitten. 
At the same time one of the most interesting features in this psychic 
