Observations on Young Mammals. 109 



Mr. Drane observed * that a tame hare persistently tried 

 to burrow in his bed. The carriage and movements of the 

 tail in the dog and the cat, each after its kind, exemplify 

 congenital tendencies ; and the socially dependent nature 

 of the dog, as compared with the self-sufficiency of the cat, 

 is early seen. In the kitten the arching of the back, the 

 characteristic response which we interpret as the accom- 

 paniment of fear or anger — opened mouth, guttural hissing, 

 and a final spit — are undoubtedly congenital traits ; as 

 are also the licking of the fur (paw, sixteenth day ; neck 

 and chest, twenty-second day, in Dr. Mills's kitten), the 

 washing of the face (twenty-ninth day), and the stretching 

 after the manner of an old cat (thirty-first day). Con- 

 genital but deferred is the purring of the cat (fifty-fourth 

 day); congenital, too, would seem to be the tendency in 

 the kitten, much more markedly than in the puppy, to 

 crouch and stalk a moving object of small size, the re- 

 sponse being, it would seem, evoked by any such moving 

 object. I could detect no difference in the reaction to a 

 clockwork mouse and the real animal. Still, I have no 

 doubt that the smell of a real mouse is not without its 

 effect. Dr. Mills's observation, in fact, show this to be 

 so. So, too, the smell of game will set a game-dog on the 

 qai vive. When I am incubating pheasants' or partridges' 

 eggs, my fox-terrior takes an olfactory interest in the 

 drawer which he does not show to the same degree with 

 hens' eggs or those of ducks. This is still more the case 

 with the young birds. Such difference of behaviour is, 

 no doubt, partly due to association and experience; but 

 in greater degree, it is generally believed, to what is given 

 through inheritance. 



Starting at very different levels of physical development, 



• Trans. Cardiff Naturalists Society, vol. xxvii. part ii., 1894-95. 



