CAT— GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 
421 
modus operandi. Walking up to the door with a most 
matter-of-course kind of air, she used to spring at the 
half-hoop handle just below the thumb-latch. Holding 
on to the bottom of this half-hoop with one fore-paw, she 
then raised the other to the thumb-piece, and while 
depressing the latter, finally with her hind legs scratched 
and pushed the doorposts so as to open the door. Pre- 
cisely similar movements are described by my correspon- 
dents as having been witnessed by them. 
Of course in all such cases the cats must have pre- 
viously observed that the doors are opened by persons 
placing their hands upon the handles, and, having ob- 
served this, the animals forthwith act by what may be 
strictly termed rational imitation. But it should be 
observed that the process as a whole is something more 
than imitative. For not only would observation alone be 
scarcely enough (within any limits of thoughtful reflection 
that it would be reasonable to ascribe to an animal) to 
enable a cat upon the ground to distinguish that the es- 
sential part of the process as performed by the human 
hand consists, not in grasping the handle, but in depress- 
ing the latch ; but the cat certainly never saw any one, 
after having depressed the latch, pushing the doorposts 
with., his legs ; and that this pushing action is due to an 
originally deliberate intention of opening the door, and 
not to having accidentally found this action to assist the 
process, is shown by one of the cases communicated 
to me (by Mr. Henry A. Graphaus) ; for in this case, my 
correspondent says, 4 the door was not a loose-fitting one 
by any means, and I was surprised that by the force of one 
hind leg. she should have been able to push it open after 
unlatching it . 5 Hence we can only conclude that the cats 
in such cases have a very definite idea as to the mechan- 
ical properties of a door ; they know that to make it open, 
even when unlatched, it requires to be pushed — a very 
different thing from trying to imitate any particular action 
which they may see to be performed for the same purp se 
by man. The whole psychological process, there h e 
implied by the fact of a cat opening a door in this way is 
really most complex. First the animal must have ob- 
