28 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. I. 



have been given of the sagacity of quadrupeds, we shall 

 only add one more, which, as recorded of an animal consi- 

 dered as proverbially stupid, is proportionably singular. 

 An ass, belonging to captain Dundas, R. N., was shipped 

 on board a frigate proceeding from Gibraltar to the 

 island of Malta. The vessel struck on some sands off 

 the Point de Gat, and the poor ass was thrown over- 

 board, the sea at the time running so high, that a boat 

 which tried to reach the shore was lost. A few days 

 after, however, this identical ass presented itself at the 

 gates of Gibraltar, and hastened to the stable which it 

 had formerly occupied. The fact was, that the poor 

 animal had not only escaped safely from the waves, but 

 actually travelled a distance of 200 miles through an 

 intricate country, in a space of time which could not 

 allow of his having even mistaken his road.* 



(32.) A most singular instance of the instinct of a 

 cat for discovering its home is too remarkable to be 

 omitted, particularly as it occurred under our own ob- 

 servation. This cat was an excellent raouser ; and the 

 house of a neighbouring friend being greatly infested 

 with rats, it was agreed that the animal should take up 

 its residence for a time in his house, that it might be 

 cleared, in some degree, of these troublesome pests. 

 Pussy, however, had then a kitten about two or three 

 months old ; and as we thought she was more likely to 

 remain in her new habitation, if she had her little one 

 as a companion, both animals were sent ; and, that the 

 mother should not discover her way back, both were 

 tied up in a sack, and in that state conveyed to our 

 friend's house, a distance of near a mile and a half from 

 Tittenhanger Green. The mother, finding herself with 

 her kitten, and in a good hunting locality, made no ef- 

 fort to escape. To our utter astonishment, however, she 

 made her appearance, next morning, at the breakfast- 

 room door, at her usual hour ! She had come no one 

 knew how over fields and through coppices, as it was 

 conjectured, early in the morning, by a route she never 



* Kirby and Spence's Introd. to Entomology, vol. ii. p. 563. 



