412 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



sprang, and therefore cannot estimate the extent of the 

 psychological results which human agency has here pro- 

 duced; but it is worth while in this connection to 

 remember that the nearest ally of the domestic cat is the 

 wild cat, and that this animal, while so closely resembling 

 its congener in size and anatomical structure, differs so 

 enormously from it in the branch of psychological structure 

 which we are considering, that there is no animal on the: 

 face of the earth so obstinately untamable. 



As regards the wild species of the tribe in general, it 

 may be said that they all exhibit the same unsocial, fierce,, 

 and rapacious character. Bold when brought to bay, they 

 do not court battle with dangerous antagonists, but prefer 

 to seek safety in flight. Even the proverbial courage of the 

 lion is now known, as a rule, to consist in ' the better part 

 of valour;' and those exceptional individuals among 

 tigers which adopt a ' man- eating ' propensity, snatch 

 their human victims by stealth. That the larger feline 

 animals possess high intelligence would be shown, even in 

 the absence of information concerning their ordinary 

 habits, by the numerous tricks which they prove them- 

 selves capable of learning at the hands of menagerie- 

 keepers ; though in such cases the conflict of nature with 

 nurture renders even the best-trained specimens highly 

 uncertain in their behaviour, and therefore always more or 

 less dangerous to the ' lion-kings.' The only wild species 

 that is employed for any practical purpose — the cheetah 

 — is so employed by utilising directly its natural instincts ; 

 it is shown the antelope, and runs it down after the 

 manner of all its ancestors. 



Eeturning now to the domestic cat, it is commonly 

 remarked as a peculiar and distinctive trait in its emo- 

 tional character that it shows a strongly rooted attach- 

 ment to places as distinguished from persons. There can 

 be no question that this peculiarity is a marked feature in 

 the psychology of domestic cats considered as a class,, 

 although of course individual exceptions occur in abun- 

 dance. Probably this feature is a survival of an instinctive 

 attachment to dens or lairs bequeathed to our cats by their 

 wild progenitors. 



