490 OF INSTINCT. SECT. XVI. n. 



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 iny hearth from the 

 tea-kettle, and I obferved a kitten cover it with aflies. 

 Hence this mud alfo be an acquired art, as the crea- 

 ture miflook the application of it. 



To preferve their fur clean, and efpecially their 

 \vhiikers, cats warn their faces, and generally quite 

 behind their ears, every time they eat. As they 

 cannot lick thofe places with their tongues, they firit 

 wet the infide of the leg with faliva, and then re- 

 peatedly warn their faces with it, which mufl origi- 

 nally 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 greateft 

 part of human arts* 



Thefe animals feem to poiTefs fomething like an 

 additional fenfe by means of their whifkers ; which 

 have perhaps fome analogy to the antennas of moths 

 and butterflies. The whifkers 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 eyebrow, and alfo two or three on each cheek ; 

 all which, when the animal erects them, make with 

 their points fo many parts of the periphery of a cir- 

 cle, of an extent at lead equal to the circumference 

 of any part of their own bodies. With this inflru- 

 ment, I conceive, by a little experience, they can 

 at price determine, whether any aperture amongft 

 hedges or fhrubs, in which animals of this genus 

 live in their wild flare, is large enough to admit 

 their bodies ; which to them is a matter of the great- 

 eft confequence, whether purfuing or purfued. 

 They have like wife a power of erecting and bring- 

 ing forward the whifkers on their lips ; which pro- . 

 bably is for the purpofe of feeling, whether a dark 

 hole be further- permeable. 



The 



