CHAPTER XIV. 
THE CAT. 
The cat is unquestionably a highly intelligent animal, 
though when contrasted with its great domestic rival, the 
dog, its intelligence, from being cast in quite a different 
mould, is very frequently underrated. Comparatively un- 
social in temperament, wanderingly predaceous in habits, 
and lacking in the affectionate docility of the canine 
nature, this animal has never in any considerable degree 
been subject to those psychologically transforming influ- 
ences whereby a prolonged and intimate association 
with man has, as we shall subsequently see, so profoundly 
modified the psychology of the dog. Nevertheless, as we 
shall immediately find, the cat is not only by nature an 
animal remarkable for intelligence, but in spite of its 
naturally imposed disadvantages of temperament, has not 
altogether escaped those privileges of nurture which un- 
numbered centuries of domestication could scarcely fail 
to supply. Thus, as contrasted with most of the wild 
species of the genus when tamed from their youngest 
days, the domestic cat is conspicuously of less uncertain 
temper towards its masters — the uncertainty of temper 
displayed by nearly all the wild members of the feline tribe 
when tamed being, of course, an expression of the inter- 
ference of individual with hereditary experience. And, as 
contrasted with all the wild species of the genus when 
tamed, the domestic cat is conspicuous in alone manifest- 
ing any exalted development of affection towards the 
human kind ; for in many individual cases such affection, 
under favouring circumstances, reaches a level fully com- 
parable to that which it attains in the dog. We do not 
know the wild stock from which the domestic cat originally 
