x SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 215 



catches his paw. He naturally refuses to try again for some 

 time, but I encourage him a good deal, and at length he opens. 



10. Opens more carefully, using nose instead of claw, when 

 drawer is opened a little way. Then uses paw. 



I can hardly doubt that Jack really understood this trick 

 from an early stage, but was afraid of it. When he found 

 that the drawer opened so easily, he got over his objection 

 to the handle. The minor adjustments, in particular the 

 avoidance of shutting the drawer upon his paw a second 

 time, are interesting, and show a very clear appreciation 

 of what had to be done. 



About three weeks later I gave Jack another little 

 cabinet of drawers, hanging a button-hook on to the 

 handle so that he could get hold of it. This he very 

 rapidly dealt with. As he was smelling about, the drawer 

 shook a little bit open, and I shut it again. This seemed 

 to stimulate his attention, and he at once opened it, re- 

 peating his success three or four times. 



The cats dealt with the cabinet of drawers in a much 

 more scientific fashion than Jack. 



My cat was encouraged by the drawer being left slightly open 

 at first, but two other cats, Teufel and his companion, a two 

 year old Persian, learnt it without any such adventitious aids. 

 Teufel was shown it three times, and then opened with the 

 handle. At the next attempt he failed at first, tried again, and 

 succeeded. After this he did not fail again. The Persian was 

 shown twice only, and then opened without fail. 1 



The discrimination of the drawers was quite another 

 matter. Jack failed in this hopelessly ; so, at first, did 

 Tim. I have seen the cat open the bottom drawer when 

 the food was placed in the top. The failure seems due 

 entirely to inattention. 



In a long series of experiments, the cat was right three times 

 out of six and in the remaining trials, hesitated twice at the 

 right drawer when allowed to stand just in front of the drawers. 

 When held further away while the meat was put in, he became 

 confused, and in the next six trials was only right twice. In 

 the next six he was right three times ; in the next, twice ; but 

 counting from the last trial of that six, he was right four times 



1 The experiment was repeated with Teufel the next evening without 

 failure, but apparently not with the other cat. 



