228 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



business of the firm (in the rat and mouse de- 

 partment) strictly in its own way, selects its mates 

 with an utter disregard of the views of its human 

 colleagues, and habitually keeps outrageous hours. 

 We, many of us, put up with a great deal from 

 our servants and co-workers, but what employer 

 or member of a firm would tolerate from his 

 associates in business brawls and riotous orgies 

 on his roof at two o'clock in the morning ? 



In fact, if we were to seek for an}' parallel 

 relationship existing between human beings, we 

 should find it rather in the case of two indepen- 

 dent people who occasionally find it convenient to 

 share premises or to transact business in com- 

 pany, than where there is a definite tie, such as 

 exists between partners or between employer or 

 employed. 



We may expect, therefore, to find remaining in 

 the cat a great many attributes which were de- 

 veloped, not to meet any present needs, but to 

 enable it to encounter the emergencies of a wild 

 life in the forest before it joined its fortunes with 

 those of man. 



All the cat's habits show it to be by nature 

 a solitary animal. Even in early life, when 

 family ties necessarily bring out the instinct of 



