A PINCH OF SALT 
bility. The cat always carries her kittens by the 
back of the neck; it is her best way to carry them, 
though I do not suppose this act is the result of 
experiment on her part. 
A chimney swift has taken up her abode in my 
study chimney. At intervals, day or night, when she 
hears me in the room, she makes a sudden flapping 
and drumming sound with her wings to scare me 
away. It is a very pretty little trick and quite amus- 
ing. If you appear above the opening of the top of a 
chimney where a swift is sitting on her nest, she will 
try to drum you away in the same manner. I do 
not suppose there is any thought or calculation in 
her behavior, any more than thereis in her nest-build- 
ing, or any other of her instinctive doings. Itis prob- 
ably as much a reflex act as that of a bird when she 
turns her eggs, or feigns lameness or paralysis, to 
lure you away from her nest, or as the “ playing pos- 
sum” ofa rose-bug or potato-bug when it is disturbed. 
One of the writers referred to above relates with 
much detail this astonishing thing of the Canada 
lynx: He saw a pack of them trailing their game — 
a hare — through the winter woods, not only hunting 
in concert, but tracking their quarry. Now any can- 
did and informed reader will balk at this story, for 
two reasons: (1) the cat tribe do not hunt by scent, 
but by sight, — they stalk or waylay their game; (2) 
they hunt singly, they are all solitary in their habits, 
they are probably the most unsocial of the carnivora, 
183 
