414 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
case of the dog, been under the cumulative influence of 
human agency in becoming further and further bent away 
from its original and naturally imposed position of self- 
reliance ; so that when now a severance takes place between 
a cat and its human protectors, the animal, inheriting 
unimpaired the transmitted experience of wild progenitors, 
knows very well how to take care of itself. 
Having made these general remarks, I shall now pass 
on to quote a few instances showing the highest level of 
intelligence to which cats attain. 
As to observation, Mrs. Hubbard tells me of a cat 
which she possessed, and which was in the habit of 
poaching young rabbits to * eat privately in the seclusion 
of a disused pigsty . 9 One day this cat caught a small black 
rabbit, and instead of eating it, as she always did the 
brown ones, brought it into the house unhurt, and laid it 
at the feet of her mistress. 6 She clearly recognised the 
black rabbit as an unusual specimen, and apparently 
thought it right to show it to her mistress . 9 Such was 
6 not the only instance this cat showed of zoological dis- 
crimination , 9 for on another occasion, 4 having caught 
another unusual animal — viz., a stoat — she also brought 
this alive into the house for the purpose of exhibiting it . 9 
Mr. A. Percy Smith informs me of a cat which he 
possesses, and which, to test her intelligence, he used to 
punish whenever her kittens misbehaved. Very soon this 
had the effect of causing the cat herself to train the 
kittens, for whenever they misbehaved 6 she swore at them 
and boxed their ears, until she taught the kittens to be 
clean . 9 
Mr. Blackman, writing from the London Institution, 
tells me of a cat which he has, and which without 
tuition began to 4 beg 9 for food, in imitation of a terrier 
in the same house whose begging gesture it must have 
observed to be successful in the obtaining of tit-bits. 
The cat, however, would never beg unless it was 
hungry ; — 
And no coaxing could persuade it to do so unless it felt so 
inclined. The same cat also, whenever it wanted to go out, would 
come into the sitting-room, and make a peculiar noise to attract 
