ANIMAL REPUTATION. 91 



quarrels and fights, when they do occur, are too frequently 

 the direct result of man's intervention, of his cruel propensity 

 for what he calls ( sport,' though cases occasionally occur 

 also in which a practical perhaps malicious animal joker, 

 such as the parrot, produces and enjoys the same effect. 

 When left alone, cats and dogs, so far from quarrelling with 

 each other, contract the closest companionships or friend- 

 ships, characterised by the strongest reciprocal affection. 



Take a single suggestive case from c Nature.' As puppy 

 and kitten a mastiff and a cat had contracted so strong a 

 liking for each other that the latter voluntarily took up her 

 residence in his kennel. She ' never seemed happy ' when 

 away from him. ' She ate her breakfast out of the dog's bowl, 

 and slept in his kennel with his paws around her. She used 

 to catch mice and young rats and carry them to him, and 

 seemed quite pleased when he accepted friendship's offering.' 

 She duly made his kennel her accouchement chamber and 

 nursery, while he became nurse to her progeny in her fre- 

 quent absences. c Cato,' we are told, was ' quite proud of 

 his charge.' Her only surviving kitten in course of time 

 became as fond of the dog as its mother had been. It, too, 

 6 brings mice, young rats, and rabbits, and lays them ' before 

 him, looking 'beseechingly till he takes them. She con- 

 stantly plays with him, and gets on her hind legs to look 

 fondly into his face, while he puts his paws round her, as 

 he used to do to her mother.' 



Here one of the most interesting and suggestive features 

 is the apparent hereditary transmission of fondness for an 

 animal that is so generally looked upon by man as the 

 cat's natural enemy. Dogs and cats, especially when both 

 are young, are indeed common playfellows, as I have myself 

 seen over and over again in many a household. The 

 alleged mutual antipathy, and consequent quarrelling, of the 

 dog and cat are, therefore, one of man's many fables, fictions, 

 or popular delusions concerning other animals. Many in- 

 stances of sympathy between the dog and the cat, of good 

 offices performed by the one towards the other most fre- 

 quently by the dog towards the cat and of the effects 

 produced on the whole character of the one by the other 



