SCENTS AND SOUNDS 
hi 
different from that of the others. He lay down 
inhaling the scent with a dreamy look in his eyes. 
Then he made faces and yawned, turned his back on 
the scent, and thought. He then inhaled the perfume 
again for some time, walked slowly off to his bed, and 
lay down to sleep. 
The smaller cats were in many cases as pleased with 
the scent as the leopards, the ocelot in particular on 
one occasion, after inhaling the perfume, ate the small 
piece of paper on which it was poured. But the liking 
for lavender-water is by no means confined to the 
felidce. The Cape ratels were delighted with the 
scent, and the racoon, when the bottle was presented 
to it corked, with great good sense pulled out the 
stopper ; but this may have been due to curiosity, as 
it was at once thrown away. Other creatures, on the 
contrary, either cared nothing for the scent or found 
it disagreeable. An otter, in particular, gave a snort 
of disgust, dived into the water, and then ran to its 
mate, to whom it seemed to convey some of its 
impressions, for both otters carefully avoided the 
perfumed wool. No doubt there lies somewhere in 
our rivers, “ under the glassy, cool translucent wave,” 
or on their flower-bordered banks, some odorous herb 
or water-weed which the otter also loves. That the 
pleasure felt by so many animals in the odour of 
“ sweet lavender” is due to pure and simple enjoy- 
ment of a perfume, made intensely more delightful to 
them than to ourselves by the wonderful development 
of their sense of smell, seems clear, not only from the 
