52 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



shore. When released, the creature seemed for some days to 

 be nearly insane. It did not recognize any of its friends, it 

 betook itself to the fields, and was with difficulty captured at 

 the end of a week of roaming, during which it appeared to 

 have had no food. Confined within one room, it gradually 

 recovered its powers of mind, and began to take account of 

 its friends. In the course of a month it seemed to be recon- 

 ciled to its surroundings. Nine months after its first sojourn 

 in the wilderness it was again brought from the town to the 

 same place. On the second visit the creature was somewhat 

 uneasy, but this passed away in a day or two. On a third 

 visit, after a like interval, it seemed at once and entirely at 

 home. Nevertheless, its habits while in the country differ 

 very much from those it has in town. In its original domi- 

 cile it insists on being about the table at meal-times. While 

 in the country it does not care to be present ; in fact, it 

 appears to avoid associations with the household. It seems 

 to me that this cat, after the manner of some men whose 

 brains are diseased, now lives in two distinct states of con- 

 sciousness, each relating to one of its places of abode. 



The differences as regards affection for localities which is 

 shown by cats and dogs are perhaps to be accounted for by 

 an original and essential variation in the habits of life in their 

 wild ancestors. Judging by the kindred of the species which 

 are known to us in their wild state, we may fairly suppose 

 that the dogs were of old accustomed to range over a wide 

 field, having no fixed place of abode ; the pack ranging, if the 

 occasion served, for hundreds of miles in any direction. On 

 the other hand, with the cats, it is characteristic of the species 

 that they have lairs to which they resort, and a definite hunt- 

 ing ground in which they seek their food. They are, in a 



