CAT— GENEKAL INTELLIGENCE. 
415 
attention : failing that mode being successful, it would pull one's 
dress with its claw and then having succeeded in attracting the 
desired attention, it would walk to the street door and stop 
there, making the same cry until let out. 
Coming now to cases indicative of reason in cats, Mr. 
John Martin, writing from St. Clement’s, Oxford, informs 
me : 6 1 have a cat which a short time ago had kittens, 
and from some cause or other her milk failed. My house- 
keeper saw her carrying a piece of bread to them.’ The 
process of reasoning here is obvious. 
Mr. Bidie, writing from the Government Museum of 
Madras to Nature 5 (vol. xx., p. 96), relates this instance 
of reasoning in a cat : — 
In 1877 I was absent from Madras for two months, and left 
in my quarters three cats, one of which, an English tabby, was 
a very gentle and affectionate creature. During my absence the 
quarters were occupied by two young gentlemen, who delighted 
in teasing and frightening the cats. About a week before my 
return the English cat had kittens, which she carefully con- 
cealed behind bookshelves in the library. On the morning of 
my return I saw the cat, and patted her as usual, and then left 
the house for about an hour. On returning to dress I found 
that the kittens were located in a corner of my dressing-room, 
where previous broods had been deposited and nursed. On 
questioning the servant as to how they came there, he at once 
replied, * Sir, the old cat taking one by one in her mouth, brought 
them here.’ In other words, the mother had carried them one 
by one in her mouth from the library to the dressing-room, where 
they lav quite exposed. I do not think I have heard of a more 
remarkable instance of reasoning and affectionate confidence in 
an animal, and I need hardly say that the latter manifestation 
gave me great pleasure. The train of reasoning seems to have 
been as follows : 4 Now that my master has returned there is no 
risk of the kittens being injured by the two young savages in 
the house, so I will take them out for my protector to see and 
admire, and keep them in the corner in which all my former 
pets have been nursed in safety.’ 
Dr. Bannister writes me from Chicago, of a cat belong- 
ing to his friend the late Mr. Meek, the palaeontologist^ 
who drew my correspondent’s attention to the fact: — 
He had fixed upright on his table a small looking-glass, from 
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