BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL 645 



been more adequately studied. For it is known that a cat dropped 

 from a height on a soft bed goes through a series of righting reflex- 

 movements, activated partly from the eyes, but essentially from 

 the semicircular canals of the ears. As to the cat's strictly instinctive 

 behaviour, it extends from simple inborn activities like purring 

 to concatenations. like those of maternal routine. A good instance 

 of instinctive behaviour is seen when the kitten chases a small 

 moving object, and this is normally the prelude to the specialised 

 mouse-killing instinct. In regard to the latter, it seems certain that 

 it is Hkely to remain in abeyance if it is not activated before the 

 third month. The trigger-puUing normally occurs when the kitten 

 is about two months old, and it is a remarkable awakening. All of a 

 sudden the playful and irresponsible kitten becomes transformed 

 into a beast of prey very much in earnest. As Prof. G. S. Gates says 

 in her Modern Cat: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology 

 (New York, 1928), "The hair bristles, the tail is erected or switched, 

 there occurs hissing, sometimes spitting, growling, unsheathing and 

 sheathing of the claws. Even in the first kill the kitten seizes the 

 mouse by the head, neck, or back, in such a way that it cannot bite." 

 If the liberative stimulus is too long deferred, the relatively mis- 

 educated kitten may grow up more or less indifferent to mice. Cat 

 and mouse friendships have often been recorded, in newspapers at 

 least. A cat may nonchalantly allow a mouse to perch on its back. 



Generous philofelines mix up Puss's sensory acuteness, inborn 

 reflexes, and instinctive endowments with her genuine intelligence; 

 and the result is a very wonderful but equally unreal cat. Similarly, 

 they put the results of training down to the credit of cleverness. 

 When Stables held his cat opposite a big map of London with the 

 chief buildings marked by dark splashes, it used to put its paw on 

 the British Museum or the like when the name of the site was 

 shouted out. This was very puzzling to the onlooker, but it turned 

 out that the cat was accustomed to catch flies on the wall, and that 

 it took the dark splashes on the map for its accustomed booty ! 



Cats can be trained to open boxes, to escape from latched cages, 

 to use their paw in getting cream out of a narrow-necked jug, to 

 press a button, to pull a loop, to ring a bell, and so on; and the 

 teacher's usual method is to go through the process patiently and 

 repeatedly, and to reward success generously. In other cases, the 

 conditioned reflex method is utilised ; that is to say, a real stimulus 

 is used to induce a natural response, but along with the real stimulus 

 there is simultaneously associated an arbitrary signal, such as a 

 verbal command. By and by the secondary stimulus works without 

 the first. Thus the cat "begs" when you tell it to beg, and the food 

 stimulus may be dispensed with. 



After taking account of all the non-intelligent modes of feline 

 behaviour, it is easier with a clear intellectual conscience to discuss 



