Berry, huitatwn in Cats. 25 



It was not until the mouse began to run that the interest of the 

 cat was aroused. The cat then ran after it, playfully striking it 

 with her paw, becoming rougher the longer she played with it. 

 The instinct seems to be for the cat to run after that which runs 

 from it. I think it is evident from Experiment 7 that it is through 

 imitation that the average cat learns to kill and eat mice. If this 

 is true, it shows the extreme importance of imitation in the mental 

 development of the cat. Furthermore it indicates that much that 

 has commonly been attributed to instinct is, in reality, due to 

 imitation. 



However, a potent factor in this learning to kill mice is the mere 

 presence of another cat. As a rule, when one of the cats was left 

 with a mouse it merely played with it without showing any signs 

 of anger; but the moment another cat approached its attitude 

 changed at once. It now seized the mouse and began to growl. 

 In this way one kitten may happen to kill a mouse in trying to 

 keep another kitten from getting it. 



My experiments have demonstrated furthermore, the fact that 

 important individual differences appear in cats of the same litter. 

 One individual has more intelligence than another, and there are 

 marked variations in the learning ability of the same individual in 

 different experiments. 



To sum up, I think my experiments have shown: (i) that 

 voluntary imitation of a certain type exists in cats; (2) that cats, 

 to some extent, imitate human beings; (3) that instinctive imita- 

 tion in cats is more important than students of animal behavior 

 have supposed; and (4) that cats do not instinctively kill and eat 

 mice, but learn to do so by imitation. 



