USE OF NATUKAL INSTRUMENTS. 417 



who whistled a tune, 'as if pleased with the sound' (Wood). 

 Cats 'cuff' each other or their young that is, they give 

 blows, and so punish or administer rebuke to some unruly 

 or troublesome kitten with their paws. They also warm 

 their paws before a fire, and use them for shading the face 

 either from the fire or the sun (' Animal World'). We are 

 told of a cat frequently patting the nose of a companion 

 horse. It is well known that our domestic cats are in the 

 habit of washing their faces by means of their paws, by 

 which means also they brush and clean their foreheads and 

 eyes. The cat uses its fore paw too in touching or testing 

 objects to ascertain, for instance, their hardness or other 

 qualities (' Percy Anecdotes '), or to measure the quantity or 

 discover the level of the fluids certain vessels may contain. 

 Thus a cat, ' when wishing to drink water from a jug,' used 

 its paw ' to ascertain if it was full enough ' (' Animal World '). 

 It takes milk from a narrow milk-pot by inserting its paw, 

 curling it up for removal when saturated with milk, and then 

 licking it (Wood). In a Birmingham burglary case, heard 

 at the Warwick Assizes in March 1877, 'the prosecutor de- 

 posed that he was awoke by his cat patting his face, Puss 

 having discovered the burglars rummaging his bedroom.' ! 



The bear uses its fore legs and paws for the purposes of 

 embrace, either that of affection in the case of a mother and 

 her cubs, or of mutual recognition (Buffon), or in the hug of 

 struggle with an enemy, such as man, or some other ob- 

 noxious, and it may be inanimate, object. Gillmore mentions 

 a North American black bear that picked up a frightened and 

 fugitive sheep between his paws, placed it on the top of the 

 rails of a fence, and pushed it over, so as to assist its flight 

 a procedure which the observer himself describes as ' almost 

 incredible.' 



Drummond mentions a lioness as giving her unruly cubs 

 a smart blow with her paw as a quietus. Kangaroos use 

 their fore legs and paws to hug the dog in fight (Baden 

 Powell). The tame hare uses its fore paws in patting or 

 clapping (' Percy Anecdotes '). And we are told of wild 

 hares 'patting each other in the face with their paws, as 

 1 < Inverness Courier,' March 29, 1877. 



