CAT— GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 421 



modus operandi. Walking up to the door with a most 

 matter-of-course kind of air, she used to spring at the 

 half-hoop handle just below the thumb-latch. Holding 

 on to the bottom of this half-hoop with one fore-paw, she 

 then raised the other to the thumb-piece, and while 

 depressing the latter, finally with her hind legs scratched 

 and pushed the doorposts so as to open the door. Pre- 

 cisely similar movements are described by my correspon- 

 dents as having been witnessed by them. 



Of course in all such cases the cats must have pre- 

 viously observed that the doors are opened by persons 

 placing their hands upon the handles, and, having ob- 

 served this, the animals forthwith act by what may be 

 strictly termed rational imitation. But it should be 

 observed that the process as a whole is something more 

 than imitative. For not only would observation alone be 

 scarcely enough (within any limits of thoughtful reflection 

 that it would be reasonable to ascribe to an animal) to 

 enable a cat upon the ground to distinguish that the es- 

 sential part of the process as performed by the human 

 hand consists, not in grasping the handle, but in depress- 

 ing the latch ; but the cat certainly never saw any one, 

 after having depressed the latch, pushing the doorposts 

 with his legs ; and that this pushing action is due to an 

 originally deliberate intention of opening the door, and 

 not to having accidentally found this action to assist the 

 process, is shown by one of the cases communicated 

 to me (by Mr. Henry A. Graphaus) ; for in this case, my 

 correspondent says, ' the door was not a loose-fitting one 

 by any means, and I was surprised that by the force of one 

 hind leg she should have been able to push it open after 

 unlatching it.' Hence we can only conclude that the cats 

 in such cases have a very definite idea as to the mechan- 

 ical properties of a door ; they know that to make it open, 

 even when unlatched, it requires to be pushed — a very 

 different thing from trying to imitate any particular action 

 which they may see to be performed for the same purpose 

 by man. The whole psychological process, therefore, 

 implied by the fact of a cat opening a door in this way is 

 really most complex. First the animal must have ob- 



