120 OF INSTINCT. SECT. XVI. u. i. 



a hundred crows at once preying upon mufcles ; each crow- 

 took a mufcle up into the air twenty or forty yards high, and 

 let it fall on the (tones, and thus by breaking the (hell, got pof- 

 feffion of the animal A certain philofopher (I think it was 

 Anaxagoras) walking along the fea-fhore to gather (hells, one of 

 thefe unlucky birds miftaking his bald head for a (lone, drop- 

 ped a (hell fi(h upon it, and killed at once a philofopher and an 

 oyfter. 



The martin, (hirundo urbica) is faid by Linnxus to dwell on 

 the outfide of houfes in Europe under the eaves, and to return 

 with the early foliage. And that, when it has built, the fpar- 

 row, fringilla domeflica, frequently occupies the fmifhed neft ^ 

 but that the martin convoking its companions, while fome guard 

 the captive enemy, others bring clay, exactly clofe up the en- 

 trance, and fly away leaving the intruder to be fuffbcated. Syft > 

 Natur. Pad'. Hirundo. A (imilar relation was printed many 

 years ago in the Gentleman's Magazine. 



Our domeflic animals, that have fome liberty, are alfo poilefi- 

 ed of fome peculiar traditional knowledge : dogs and cats have 

 been forced into each other's fociety, though naturally animals 

 of a very different kind, and have hence learned from each other 

 to eat dog's grafs (agroftis canina) when they are (ick, to promote 

 vomiting. I have feen a cat miftake the blade of barley for 

 this grafs, which evinces it is an acquired knowledge. They 

 have alfo learnt of each other to cover their excrement and urine ; 

 about a fpoonful of water was fpilt upon my hearth from the 

 tea-kettle, and I obferved a kitten cover it with a(hes. Hence 

 this mud aifobe an acquired art as the creature miftook the ap- 

 plication of it. 



To preferve their fur clean, and efpecially their whifkers, cats 

 wafluheir faces, and generally quite behind their ears, every time 

 they eat. As they cannot lick thofe places with their tongues, 

 they firft wet the infide of the leg with faliva, and then repeat- 

 edly wa(h their faces with it, which mud originally be an effect 

 of reafoning, becaufe a means is ufed to produce an effect ; and 

 feems afterwards to be taught or acquired by imitation, like the 

 greatefl part of human arts. 



Thefe animals feem to pofiefs fomething like an additional 

 fenfe by means of their whiflters ; which have perhaps fo ne 

 analogy to the antennae of moths and butterflies. The whsfkers 

 of cats confift not only of the long hairs on their upper lips, but 

 they have alfo four or five long hairs (landing up from each eye- 

 brow, and alfo two or three on each cheek j all which when 

 the animal creels them, make with their points (o many parts 

 of the periphery of a circle, of an extent at leail equal to the 



circumference 



