228 



ON THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF 



striking anecdote to this effect in his very interesting Life, in which he relates 

 the sudden disappearance of a man, who, it seems, had perished on the top 

 of Helvellyn ; his body was found two months afterward in this exposed and 

 desolate spot, with his faithful dog still sitting by it.* And he adds a similar 

 tale, told him by the duke of Northumberland, concerning a young antelope 

 that had perished by a fall, whose mother immediately quitted the pasture in 

 which she was feeding, sat piteously by the side of the body, which she re- 

 fused to quit, and died of grief and hunger. 



I will only adjoin another case of a like interesting kind, that occurred not 

 long since in my own family. A favourite cat, that was accustomed from 

 day to day to take her station quietly at my elbow, on the writing-table, 

 sometimes for hour after hour, while 1 was engaged in study, became at 

 length less constant in her attendance, as she had a kitten to take care of. 

 One morning she placed herself in the same spot, but seemed unquiet ; and, 

 instead of seating herself as usual, continued to rub her furry sides against 

 my hand and pen, as though resolved to draw my attention and make me 

 leave off. As soon as she had accomplished this point she leaped down on 

 the carpet, and made towards the door with a look of great uneasiness. I 

 opened the door for her as she seemed to desire ; but instead of going forward, 

 she turned round and looked earnestly at me as though she wished me to 

 follow her, or had something to communicate. I did not fully understand her 

 meaning, and being much engaged at the time, shut the door upon her, that 

 she might go where she liked. In less than an hour afterward she had again 

 found an entrance into the room, and drawn close to me ; but instead of 

 mounting the table and rubbing herself against my hand as before, she was 

 now under the table and continued to rub herself against ray feet ; on moving 

 "which, I struck them against a something which seemed to be in their way; 

 and, on looking down, beheld, with equal grief and astonishment, the dead 

 body of her little kitten covered over with cinder-dust, and which I supposed 

 had been alive and in good health. I now entered into the entire train of this 

 afflicted cat's feelings. She had suddenly lost the nursling she doted on, and 

 was resolved to make me acquainted with it, — assuredly that I might know 

 her grief, and probably also that I might inquire into the cause ; and finding 

 me too dull to understand her expressive motioning that I would follow her to 

 the cinder-heap on which the dead kitten had been thrown, she took the great 

 labour of bringing it to me herself, from the area on the basement floor, and 

 up a whole flight of stairs, and laid it at my feet. I took up the kitten in my 

 hand, the cat still following me, made inquiry into the cause of its death, 

 which I found, upon summoning the servants, to have been an accident in 

 which no one was much to blame ; and the yearning mother having thus 

 attained her object, and gotten her master to enter into her cause, and divide 

 her sorrows with her, gradually took comfort, and resumed her former station 

 by my side. 



Yet, not unfrequently we meet with instances of the union of intelligence 

 alone with instinct alone ; of design and contrivance directed to extraordi- 

 nary occasions, no moral or internal feeling being necessary. 



The rook usually and instinctively builds her nest in the tallest branches of 

 the tallest trees : in Welbourn churchyard, however, as we learn in a letter 

 to Dr. Darwin, from a relative, a rookery was not long since formed on the 

 outside of the spire, and the tops of the loftiest windows. There had formerly 

 been a row or grove of high trees in the neighbourhood, but they had been 

 cut down ; and their aerial tenants being dispossessed of their proper man- 

 sion, had betaken themselves to the church-spire and windows, as the most 

 appropriate building for their purpose ; and had thus manifestly evinced the 



* Sir Walter Scott has, with much judgment, selected a similar, perhaps the same story, as the basis 

 of one of the most impressive and popular ballads in the English language : 



I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn, 



Lakes and mountains beneath me gieam'd misty and wide, 



All was still, save, by fits, when the eagle was yelling, 

 And starting around me the echoes replied, &c. &c. 



