418 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
of Judge Stevens, of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, as a witness 
to the same. 
Again, I quote the following case communicated to 
4 Nature ’ by Dr. Frost, because, although it shows an almost 
incredible amount of far-sighted stratagem, I cannot on 
the one hand see much room for mal-observation, and on 
the other hand it is, as I shall show, to some extent cor- 
roborated by an independent observation of my friend 
Dr. Klein, and another correspondent: — • 
Our servants have been accustomed during the late frost to 
throw the crumbs remaining from the breakfast* table to the 
birds, and I have several times noticed that our cat used to wait 
there in ambush in the expectation of obtaining a hearty meal 
from one or two of the assembled birds. Now, so far, this cir- 
cumstance in itself is not an ‘ example of abstract reasoning.' 
But to continue. For the last few days this practice of feeding 
the birds has been left off. The cat, however, with an almost 
incredible amount of forethought, was observed by myself, 
together with two other members of the household, to scatter 
crumbs on the grass with the obvious intention of enticing the 
birds . 1 
Although this account, as I have said, borders on the in- 
credible, I have allowed it to pass, because up to a certain 
point it is, as I have also said, corroborated by an obser- 
vation communicated to me by my friend Dr. Klein, F.K.S. 
Dr. Klein satisfied himself that the cat he observed had 
established a definite association between crumbs already 
sprinkled on the garden walk, and sparrows coming to eat 
them ; for as soon as the crumbs were sprinkled on the 
walk, the cat used to conceal himself from the walk in a 
neighbouring shrubbery, there to await in ambush the 
coming of the birds. The latter, however, showed them- 
selves more wide awake than the cat, for there was a wall 
running behind the shrubbery, from the top of which the 
birds could see the cat in his supposed concealment, and 
then a long line of sparrows used to wait watching the cat 
and the crumbs at the same time, but never venturing to 
fly down to the latter until the former, wearied with wait- 
ing, went away. In this case the reasoning observation 
1 Nature , vol. xix., p. 519. 
