411 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE CAT. 



The cat is unquestionably a highly intelligent animal, 

 though when contrasted with its great domestic rival, the 

 dog, its intelligence, from being cast in quite a different 

 mould, is very frequently underrated. Comparatively un- 

 social in temperament, wanderingly predaceous in habits, 

 and lacking in the affectionate docility of the canine 

 nature, this animal has never in any considerable degree 

 been subject to those psychologically transforming influ- 

 ences whereby a prolonged and intimate association 

 with man has, as we shall subsequently see, so profoundly 

 modified the psychology of the dog. Nevertheless, as we 

 shall immediately find, the cat is not only by nature an 

 animal remarkable for intelligence, but in spite of its 

 naturally imposed disadvantages of temperament, has not 

 altogether escaped those privileges of nurture which un- 

 numbered centuries of domestication could scarcely fail 

 to supply. Thus, as contrasted with most of the wild 

 species of the genus when tamed from their youngest 

 days, the domestic cat is conspicuously of less uncertain 

 temper towards its masters — the uncertainty of temper 

 displayed by nearly all the wild members of the feline tribe 

 when tamed being, of course, an expression of the inter- 

 ference of individual with hereditary experience. And, as 

 contrasted with all the wild species of the genus when 

 tamed, the domestic cat is conspicuous in alone manifest- 

 ing any exalted development of affection towards the 

 human kind ; for in many individual cases such affection, 

 under favouring circumstances, reaches a level fully com- 

 parable to that which it attains in the dog. We do not 

 know the wild stock from which the domestic cat originally 



