412 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
sprang, and therefore cannot estimate the extent of the 
psychological results which human agency has here pro- 
duced; but it is worth while in this connection to 
remember that the nearest ally of the domestic cat is the 
wild cat, and that this animal, while so closely resembling 
its congener in size and anatomical structure, differs so 
enormously from it in the branch of psychological structure 
which we are considering, that there is no animal on the 
face of the earth so obstinately untamable. 
As regards the wild species of the tribe in general, it 
may be said that they all exhibit the same unsocial, fierce, 
and rapacious character. Bold when brought to bay, they 
do not court battle with dangerous antagonists, but prefer 
to seek safety in flight. Even the proverbial courage of the 
lion is now knowm, as a rule, to consist in 4 the better part 
of valour ; 5 and those exceptional individuals among 
tigers which adopt a 4 man- eating 5 propensity, snatch 
their human victims by stealth. That the larger feline 
animals possess high intelligence would be shown, even in 
the absence of information concerning their ordinary 
habits, by the numerous tricks which they prove them- 
selves capable of learning at the hands of menagerie- 
keepers ; though in such cases the conflict of nature with 
nurture renders even the best-trained specimens highly 
uncertain in their behaviour, and therefore always more or 
less dangerous to the 4 lion-kings . 5 The only wild species 
that is employed for any practical purpose — the cheetah 
- — is so employed by utilising directly its natural instincts ; 
it is shown the antelope, and runs it down after the 
manner of all its ancestors. 
Returning now to the domestic cat, it is commonly 
remarked as a peculiar and distinctive trait in its emo- 
tional character that it shows a strongly rooted attach- 
ment to places as distinguished from persons. There can 
be no question that this peculiarity is a marked feature in 
the psychology of domestic cats considered as a class, 
although of course individual exceptions occur in abun- 
dance. Probably this feature is a survival of an instinctive 
attachment to dens or lairs bequeathed to our cats by their 
wild progenitors. 
