50 The Carnivora. 
reality of the companionship he feels in this strange guest at 
the table. : 
Now Tom kept a watchful eye and ear on his own. domain, 
and fiercely resented any intrusion. No mercy was shown to 
cats of either sex taking the short’ cut through the house. 
While with me at dinner, he would now and again dash out 
through the open door, attracted by a sound inaudible to me, 
and a squabble in the passage immediately announced the 
punishment of a trespasser. This occurred too often to be 
attributable to accident. Inasmuch as there was no possi- 
bility of seeing anything moving outside from his position near 
me, his ear must have apprised him of the presence of the 
intruder on the bare boards of the passage. The sense of 
smell, on the contrary, is peculiarly feeble, at least in domes- 
ticated cats; neither is this surprising when their habits are 
considered, for in no ordinary circumstances can it assist 
them in securing their prey. This, I think, can be placed 
beyond doubt. 
Cats have been credited with a knowledge of locality and 
direction, which, if a tenth of the stories respecting their 
“homing” faculty be true, must border on the supernatural. 
In the year 1873, Mr. Alfred R. Wallace proposed an expla- 
nation of their power of returning to their homes, after even 
months of absence, over totally unknown ground, attributed to 
many animals, and believed the faculty could be referred to the 
exercise of the senses; and especially that of smell in circum- 
stances where the animal had been conveyed in a basket or 
closed vehicle, when it was impossible that sight could have 
played any part in affording data for retracing its way. Ina 
letter to Nature of the 20th February, 1873, Mr. Wallace thus 
tersely summed up his opinion: “It seems to me that an animal 
so circumstanced will have its attention necessarily active, owing 
to its desire to get out of its confinement, and that by means of 
its most acute and only available sense, it will take note of the 
successive odours of the way, which will leave on its mind a 
series of images as distinct and prominent as those we should 
