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 there is in her nest-build- 

 ing, or any other of her instinctive doings. It is 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 " of a rose-bug or potato-bug when it is disturbed. 



One of the writers referred to above relates with 

 much detail tliis 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 



