1902 Quadrupeds. 



Extracts from Couch's ' Illustrations of Instinct.' 



[This little book appears to me to have received an unfortunate title. I should 

 describe it as a common-place book of Natural-History incidents, interspersed with 

 certain moral, philosophical and theological observations, the connexion between which 

 and the incidents is not very obvious. Besides excellent anecdotes and histories 

 penned from the author's own observations, we have others by Rusticus, Waterton, 

 Yarrell, &c. We hope Mr. Couch may be called on for a second edition, and that he 

 will see the propriety of omitting much reasoning that is not to the point, arranging 

 the sound matter zoologically or alphabetically, and leaving the words ' Instinct ' and 

 ' British ' out of his title-page. — Edward Newman.'] 



Newfoundland Dog preying on Crabs. — " The modes employed by dogs of different 

 races in capturing and devouring the crab, and especially that pugnacious species the 

 velvet crab (Portunus puber), well illustrate the experience which has become propa- 

 gated in the breed, over the ignorance of the uninitiated. On the first discovery of 

 the prey, a terrier runs in to seize it, and is immediately and severely bitten in the 

 nose. But a sedate Newfoundland dog of my acquaintance proceeds more soberly in 

 his work. He lays his paw on it, to arrest it in its escape : then tumbling it over, he 

 bares his teeth, and, seizing it with the mouth, throws the crab aloft: it falls upon 

 the stones : the shell is cracked beyond redemption ; and then the dainty dish is de- 

 voured at his leisure."— p. 179. 



Anecdote of a Cat. — " There was, within my knowledge, in the house of my parent- 

 age, a small cupboard, in which were kept milk, butter, and other requisites for the 

 tea table ; and the door was confined with a lock, which, from age and frequent use, 

 could be easily made to open. To save trouble, the key was always kept in the lock, 

 in which it revolved on a very slight impulse. It was often a subject of remark that 

 the door of this cupboard was found wide open, and the milk or butter greatly di- 

 minished, without any imaginable reason, and notwithstanding the persuasion that the 

 door had certainly been regularly locked ; but it was accident that led to the detection 

 of the offender. On watching carefully, the cat was seen to seat herself on the table ; 

 and, by repeated patting on the side of the bow of the key, it was at last made to turn, 

 when a slight pull on the door caused it to move on its hinges. It had proved a for- 

 tunate discovery for puss for a loDg time before she was taken in the fact." — p. 196. 



Anecdote of a Cat and Weasel. — " It would be as easy to catch a weasel asleep as 

 off its guard ; but it seems still more unlikely that, in the disguise of death, it should 

 suffer itself to be cuffed, and pawed, and handled with impunity by a cat : yet it so 

 happened that, while puss was reclining at ease, seemingly inattentive to all the world 

 around her, a weasel came unexpectedly up, was seized in a moment, and, dangling 

 from her teeth as if dead, was thus carried to the house at no great distance. The 

 door being shut, puss, deceived by its apparent lifelessness, laid her victim on the 

 step, while she gave her usual mewing cry for admittance. But by this time the 

 active little creature had recovered its recollection, and in a moment struck its teeth 

 into its enemy's nose. It is probable that, besides the sudden surprise of the capture, 

 the firm grasp which the cat had of it round the body had prevented any earlier effort 

 at resistance from the weasel ; for in this manner our smaller quadrupeds, which bite 

 so fiercely, may be held without injury ; but the weasel can hardly be supposed to have 

 been practising a deception all the while it was in the cat's mouth." — p. 203. 



