1890.] Effects of Musical Sounds on Animals. 125 
A lady friend of mine residing in ‘California has observed 
similar actions on the part of a cat, when the piano is playing in 
its presence. Whether a Thomas or Tabby cat I did not ask. 
Another friend, a lady residing in Washington, D. C., at one 
time owned a cat that acted in a very peculiar manner upon hear- 
ing the music of a piano. When the strain was rather soft and 
low, the cat appeared to be pleased with it, would climb up into 
the lady’s lap, reach up her head and rub it against the lady’s 
shoulder or chin, but when in the course of the time a passage 
was reached that was in a high key, with considerable emphasis, 
pussy became intensely excited, and would put her head against 
the lady’s cheek with a good deal of force, or jump down and run 
to the piano, and climb up on the person playing, and get up on 
the instrument in such a fiercely aggressive way that the per- 
former, through fear of being scratched or bitten, would stop 
playing. 
Referring to the effect of whistling upon a cat, as observed by 
E. J. T., Mr. George O. Howell says, “ A relative of mine has a 
cat, a noble animal, rejoicing under the refined name of Thomas. 
This creature dislikes to hear any one whistle. But one morn- 
ing, when he was fast asleep, I whistled loudly. It acted like 
magic. Thomas started up in an instant, looked very bewildered, 
and decamped from the room at full speed.” 
From dogs and cats, the canine and feline, let us turn to the 
porcine. 
PIGS AND MUSIC, 
“In old churches and cathedrals we sometimes find a carving 
on the miserere of a pig playing upon a bagpipe and the little pigs 
dancing around. This seems to indicate a popular notion (at 
least in times gone by) that pigs have no ear or taste for music ; 
such a notion, however, seems to be not quite correct, for I once 
saw four or five great bony pigs standing at a garden gate, listening 
with the most evident pleasure to the sweet sounds of a wander- 
ing Germari band. They stood in a row, in perfect stillness, with 
heads bent a little on one side to catch the melody; and from 
time to time gave utterance to their delight in a gentle grunt of 

