1 882.] Comparative Psychology . 641 
definite purpose.” Man, we see, is not the only tool-using 
animal. 
Sir E. Tennent, in his “ Natural History of Ceylon,” gives 
an account of a wild rogue elephant which had driven two 
men up a tree. “After vainly attempting to pull up or 
overturn the tree, observing a pile of timber at a short dis- 
tance, he brought it all (thirty-six logs), one at a time, to 
the root of the tree, and piled them up in a regular business- 
like manner; then placing his hind feet on this pile, he 
raised the fore-part of his body and reached out his trunk, 
but still could not touch us.” We have here, surely, a 
rationally conducted siege ! 
In the section on the domestic cat a capital case is given 
on the authority of Mr. James Hutchings, of Banbury. 
“ An old tom cat used a young bird, which had fallen out of 
its nest, as a decoy for the old birds. The cat touched the 
young bird with his paw when it ceased to flutter and cry, 
in order that by thus making it display its terror the old 
cock bird — which was all the time flying about in great 
consternation — might be induced to approach near enough 
to be caught. Many times the cock bird did so, and the cat 
made numerous attempts to catch it, but without success. 
All the while a kitten had to be kept from killing the young 
bird.” Here we have a stratagem devised for effecting a 
definite purpose. That stratagem could only have struck a 
being who had observed and remembered that birds will run 
unusual risks in the defence of their young. But on careful 
examination we find here something further. Why did the 
cat not at once devour the young bird ? Because he hoped 
to employ it as a means for entrapping a more valuable booty 
— one of the parents. Here, then, we find an instance of 
an animal repressing its natural instincts, and foregoing a 
present advantage in order to secure some greater benefit 
hereafter. 
Prof. Mivart (“ The Cat,” p. 373) enumerates certain 
“ human mental powers, of the possession of which by the 
cat no evidence exists.” Among these figures “ A power of, 
on certain occasions, deliberately electing to act (or to ab- 
stain from adting) either with or in opposition to the resultant 
of involuntary attractions and repulsions — will.” Here, 
then, we have distinct evidence of such “ will.” 
Mr. Romanes represents Arago as having observed the 
case of a turnspit which refused to make the spit revolve 
when it was his companion’s turn to work. The eye-witness 
of the incident, if we mistake not, was Ampere, and Arago 
merely mentions it in his official eloge of his-deceased friend. 
