CAT — GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 
419 
of the cat — c crumbs attract birds, therefore I will wait 
for birds when crumbs are scattered ’ — was as complete as 
in the case of Dr. Frost's cat, but the reasoning in the 
latter case seems to have proceeded a stage further — 
6 therefore I will scatter crumbs to attract birds.’ 
Now, in the face of the definite statement made by 
Dr. Frost, that his cat did advance to this further stage of 
reasoning, I have not felt justified in suppressing his 
remarkable observation. And, as lending still further 
credence to the account, I may quote the corroborative 
observation of another correspondent in 6 Nature,’ which is 
of value because forming an intermediate step between 
the intelligence displayed by Dr. Klein’s cat and that 
displayed by Dr. Frost’s. This correspondent says 
A. case somewhat similar to that mentioned by Dr. Frost, of 
a cat scattering crumbs, occurred here within my own know- 
ledge. During the recent severe winter a friend was in the 
habit of throwing crumbs outside his bedroom window. The 
family have a fine black cat, which, seeing that the crumbs 
brought birds, would occasionally hide herself behind some 
shrubs, and when the birds came for their breakfast, would 
pounce out upon them with varying success. The crumbs had 
been laid out as usual one afternoon, but left untouched, and 
during the night a slight fall of snow occurred. On looking out 
next morning my friend observed puss busily engaged scratching 
away the snow. Curious to learn what she sought, he waited, 
and saw her take the crumbs up from the cleared space and lay 
them one by one after another on the snow. After doing this 
she retired behind the shrubs to wait further developments. 
This was repeated on two other occasions . 1 
Taking, then, these three cases together, we have an 
ascending series in the grades of intelligence from that 
displayed by Dr. Klein’s cat, which merely observed that 
crumbs attracted birds, through that of the cat which 
exposed the concealed crumbs for the purpose of attracting 
birds, to that of Dr. Frost’s cat, which actually sprinkled 
the crumbs. Therefore, although, if the last-mentioned or 
most remarkable case had stood alone, I should not have 
felt justified in quoting it, as we find it thus led up to by 
other and independent observations, I do not feel that I 
1 Nature , vol. xx., p. 197. 
