Animal Intelligence Part 39

As to observation, Mrs. Hubbard tells me of a cat which she possessed, and which was in the habit of poaching young rabbits to 'eat privately in the seclusion of a disused pigsty.' One day this cat caught a small black rabbit, and instead of eating it, as she always did the brown ones, brought it into the house unhurt, and laid it at the feet of her mistress. 'She clearly recognised the black rabbit as an unusual specimen, and apparently thought it right to show it to her mistress.'

Such was 'not the only instance this cat showed of zoological discrimination,' for on another occasion, 'having caught another unusual animal--viz., a stoat--she also brought this alive into the house for the purpose of exhibiting it.'

Mr. A. Percy Smith informs me of a cat which he possesses, and which, to test her intelligence, he used to punish whenever her kittens misbehaved. Very soon this had the effect of causing the cat herself to train the kittens, for whenever they misbehaved 'she swore at them and boxed their ears, until she taught the kittens to be clean.'

Mr. Blackman, writing from the London Inst.i.tution, tells me of a cat which he has, and which without tuition began to 'beg' for food, in imitation of a terrier in the same house whose begging gesture it must have observed to be successful in the obtaining of t.i.t-bits. The cat, however, would never beg unless it was hungry;--

And no coaxing could persuade it to do so unless it felt so inclined. The same cat also, whenever it wanted to go out, would come into the sitting-room, and make a peculiar noise to attract 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: 'I have a cat which a short time ago had kittens, and from some cause or other her milk failed. My housekeeper 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'

(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 concealed 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 lay 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: '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 belonging 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-gla.s.s, from which he used to draw objects from nature, reversed on wood. The cat seeing her image in this gla.s.s made several attempts to investigate it, striking at it, &c. Then coming apparently to the conclusion that there was something between her and the other animal, she very slily and cautiously approached it, keeping her eye on it all the while, and struck her paw around behind the mirror, becoming seemingly much surprised at finding nothing there. This was done repeatedly, until she was at last convinced that it was beyond her comprehension, or she lost interest in the matter.

Mr. T. B. Groves communicates an almost precisely similar observation to 'Nature' (vol. xx., p. 291), of a cat which, on first seeing his own reflection in a mirror, tried to fight it. Meeting with resistance from the gla.s.s, the cat next ran behind the mirror. Not finding the object of his search, he again came to the front, and while keeping his eyes deliberately fixed on the image, felt round the edge of the gla.s.s with one paw, whilst with his head twisted round to the front he a.s.sured himself of the persistence of the reflection. He never afterwards condescended to notice a mirror.

The following is communicated to me by a correspondent whose name I cannot obtain permission to publish. I am sure, however, that it is communicated in good faith, and the incident can scarcely be supposed to have been due to accident. After describing the cat and the parrot in their amiable relations.h.i.+p, my correspondent proceeds:--

One evening there was no one in the kitchen. Cook had gone upstairs, and left a bowl full of dough to rise by the fire. Shortly after, the cat rushed up after her, mewing, and making what signs she could for her to go down; then she jumped up and seized her ap.r.o.n, and tried to drag her down. As she was in such a state of excitement cook went, and found 'Polly' shrieking, calling out, flapping her wings and struggling violently, 'up to her knees' in dough, and stuck quite fast.

No doubt if she had not been rescued she would have sunk in the mora.s.s and been smothered.

I shall here introduce two or three cases to show the ingenious devices to which clever cats will resort for the purpose of capturing prey.

Mr. James Hutchings writes in 'Nature' (vol. xii., p. 330) an account of an old tom cat using a young bird, which had fallen out of its nest, as a decoy for the old birds. The cat touched the young bird with his paw when it ceased to flutter and cry, in order that, by thus making it display its terror, the old c.o.c.k bird, which was all the while flying about in great consternation, might be induced to approach near enough to be caught. Many times the c.o.c.k bird did so, and the cat made numerous attempts to catch it, but without success. All the while a kitten had to be kept from killing the young bird. As this scene continued for a long time--in fact, till terminated by Mr. Hutchings--and as there does not appear to have been any opportunity for errors of observation, I think the case worth recording.

The following case is communicated to me by Mr. James G. Stevens, of St.

Stephen, New Brunswick:--

Looking out on the garden in front of my residence, I observed a robin alight on a small tree: it was midwinter, the ground covered with about a foot of _light_ snow. A cat came stealthily along, with difficulty making her way through the snow until within about three feet of the tree where the bird was; the robin was sluggishly resting on a twig distant three feet from the ground or surface of snow; the cat could not well, owing to the softness of the snow, venture to make a spring. She crouched down and at first gently stirred herself, evidently with the purpose of causing the bird to move. The first attempt failed. She again more actively stirred herself by a shaking motion. She again failed, when she stirred herself vigorously again and started the bird, which flew about fifty feet away, and alighted on a small low bush on the _northern_ side of a _close-boarded_ fence. The cat keenly watched the flight and the alighting of the bird; as quickly as she could cross through the snow, she then _took a circuit of about one hundred feet_, watching the place where the bird was all the while, and covering her march by making _available every bush to hide her_. When out of range of vision of the bird she more actively made for the fence, leaped over it, came up on the _southern_ side of it, and jumped on it, calculating her distance so accurately that she came within a foot of the bush where the bird was, and at once sprung. She missed her prey, but I thought she proved herself a cunning hunter. If this case is worth relating you may use the name of Judge Stevens, of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, as a witness to the same.

Again, I quote the following case communicated to '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 corroborated 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 a.s.sembled birds. Now, so far, this circ.u.mstance 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 gra.s.s with the obvious intention of enticing the birds.[256]

Although this account, as I have said, borders on the incredible, I have allowed it to pa.s.s, because up to a certain point it is, as I have also said, corroborated by an observation communicated to me by my friend Dr.

Klein, F.R.S.

Dr. Klein satisfied himself that the cat he observed had established a definite a.s.sociation 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 themselves 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 waiting, went away. In this case the reasoning observation of the cat--'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--'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 '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 knowledge. 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 s.p.a.ce 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.[257]

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 should be justified in suppressing it. And, after all, regarded as an act of reason, the sprinkling of crumbs to attract birds does not involve ideas or inferences very much more abstruse or remote than those which are concerned in some of the other and better corroborated instances of the display of feline intelligence, which I shall now proceed to state.

In the understanding of mechanical appliances, cats attain to a higher level of intelligence than any other animals, except monkeys, and perhaps elephants. Doubtless it is not accidental that these three kinds of animals fall to be a.s.sociated in this particular. The monkey in its hands, the elephant in its trunk, and the cat in its agile limbs provided with mobile claws, all possess instruments adapted to manipulation, with which no other organs in the brute creation can properly be compared, except the beak and toes of the parrot, where, as we have already seen, a similar correlation with intelligence may be traced. Probably, therefore, the higher apt.i.tude which these animals display in their understanding of mechanical appliances is due to the reaction exerted upon their intelligence by these organs of manipulation. But, be this as it may, I am quite sure that, excepting only the monkey and elephant, the cat shows a higher intelligence of the special kind in question than any other animal, not forgetting even the dog. Thus, for instance, while I have only heard of one solitary case (communicated to me by a correspondent) of a dog which, without tuition, divined the use of a thumb-latch, so as to open a closed door by jumping upon the handle and depressing the thumb-piece, I have received some half-dozen instances of this display of intelligence on the part of cats. These instances are all such precise repet.i.tions of one another, that I conclude the fact to be one of tolerably ordinary occurrence among cats, while it is certainly very rare among dogs. I may add that my own coachman once had a cat which, certainly without tuition, learnt thus to open a door that led into the stables from a yard into which looked some of the windows of the house. Standing at these windows when the cat did not see me, I have many times witnessed her _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. Precisely similar movements are described by my correspondents as having been witnessed by them.

Of course in all such cases the cats must have previously observed that the doors are opened by persons placing their hands upon the handles, and, having observed 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 essential part of the process as performed by the human hand consists, not in grasping the handle, but in depressing the latch; but the cat certainly never saw any one, after having depressed the latch, pus.h.i.+ng the doorposts with his legs; and that this pus.h.i.+ng action is due to an originally deliberate intention of opening the door, and not to having accidentally found this action to a.s.sist the process, is shown by one of the cases communicated to me (by Mr. Henry A. Gaphaus); for in this case, my correspondent says, '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.' Hence we can only conclude that the cats in such cases have a very definite idea as to the mechanical 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 purpose by man. The whole psychological process, therefore, implied by the fact of a cat opening a door in this way is really most complex. First the animal must have observed that the door is opened by the hand grasping the handle and moving the latch. Next she must reason, by 'the logic of feelings'--If a hand can do it, why not a paw? Then, strongly moved by this idea, she makes the first trial. The steps which follow have not been observed, so we cannot certainly say whether she learns by a succession of trials that depression of the thumb-piece const.i.tutes the essential part of the process, or, perhaps more probably, that her initial observations supplied her with the idea of clicking the thumb-piece. But, however this may be, it is certain that the pus.h.i.+ng with the hind feet after depressing the latch must be due to adaptive reasoning una.s.sisted by observation; and only by the concerted action of all her limbs in the performance of a highly complex and most unnatural movement is her final purpose attained.

Again, several very similar cases are communicated to me of cats spontaneously, or without tuition, learning to knock knockers and ring bells. Of course in both cases the animals must have observed the use to which knockers and bells are put, and when desiring a door to be opened, employ these signals for the purpose. It betokens no small amount of observation and reasoning in a cat to jump at a knocker with the expectation of thereby summoning a servant to open the door--especially as in some of the cases the jump is not a random jump at the knocker, but a deliberate and complex action, having for its purposes the raising and letting fall of the knocker. For instance, Mr. Belshaw, writing to 'Nature' (vol. xix., p. 659), says:--

I was sitting in one of the rooms, the first evening there, and hearing a loud knock at the front door was told not to heed it, as it was only this kitten asking admittance. Not believing it, I watched for myself, and very soon saw the kitten jump onto the door, hang on by one leg, and put the other fore-paw right through the knocker and rap twice.

In such cases the action closely resembles that of opening thumb-latches, but clearly is performed with the purpose of summoning some one else to open the door. Wonderful, however, as these cases of summoning by knockers undoubtedly are, I think they are surpa.s.sed by other cases in which the instrument used is the bell. For here it is not merely that cats perfectly well understand the use of bells as calls,[258]

but I have one or two cases of cats jumping at bell-_wires_ pa.s.sing from outside into houses the doors of which the cats desired to be opened.[259] My informants tell me that they do not know how these cats, from any process of observation, can have surmised that pulling the wire in an exposed part of its length would have the effect of ringing the bell; for they can never have observed any one pulling the wires. I can only suggest that in these cases the animals must have observed that when the bells were rung the wires moved, and that the doors were afterwards opened; then a process of inference must have led them to try whether jumping at the wires would produce the same effects. But even this, which is the simplest explanation possible, implies powers of observation scarcely less remarkable than the process of reasoning to which they gave rise.

As further instances corroborating the fact that both these faculties are developed in cats to a wonderful degree, I may add the following.

Couch ('Ill.u.s.trations of Instinct,' p. 196) gives a case within his own knowledge of a cat which, in order to get at milk kept in a locked cupboard, used to unlock the door by seating herself on an adjoining table, and 'repeatedly patting on the bow of the key with her paw, when with a slight pull on the door' she was able to open it; the lock was old, and the key turned in it 'on a very slight impulse.'

As a still further instance of the high appreciation of mechanical appliances to which cats attain, I shall quote an extract from a paper by Mr. Otto, which will have been read at the Linnean Society before this work is published. After describing the case of a cat opening a thumb-latch in the same way as those already mentioned, this writer proceeds:--

At Parara, the residence of Parker Bowman, Esq., a full-grown cat was one day accidentally locked up in a room without any other outlet than a small window, moving on hinges, and kept shut by means of a swivel.

Not long afterwards the window was found open and the cat gone. This having happened several times, it was at last found that the cat jumped upon the window-sill, placed her fore-paws as high as she could reach against the side, deliberately reached with one over to the swivel, moved it from its horizontal to a perpendicular position, and then, leaning with her whole weight against the window, swung it open and escaped.

To give only one other instance of high reasoning power in this animal, Mr. W. Brown, writing from Greenock to 'Nature' (vol. xxi., p. 397), gives a remarkable story of a cat, the facts in which do not seem to have admitted of mal-observation. While a paraffine lamp was being trimmed, some of the oil fell upon the back of the cat, and was afterwards ignited by a cinder falling upon it from the fire. The cat with her back 'in a blaze, in an instant made for the door (which happened to be open) and sped up the street about 100 yards,' where she plunged into the village watering-trough, and extinguished the flame.

'The trough had eight or nine inches of water, and puss was in the habit of seeing the fire put out with water every night.' The latter point is important, as it shows the data of observation on which the animal reasoned.

FOOTNOTES:

[256] _Nature_, vol. xix., p. 519.

[257] _Nature_, vol. xx., p. 197.

[258] Some of my correspondents tell me of pet or drawing-room cats jumping on chairs and looking at bells when they want milk--this being their sign that they want the bell pulled to call the servant who brings the milk; and Mr. Lawson Tait tells me that one of his cats--of course without tuition--has gone a step further, in that she places her paws upon the bell as a still more emphatic sign that she desires it pulled.

But Dr. Creighton Browne tells me of a cat which he has that goes a step further than this, and herself rings the bell. This is corroborative of Archbishop Whately's anecdote. 'This cat lived many years in my mother's family, and its feats of sagacity were witnessed by her, my sisters, and myself. It was known, not merely once or twice, but habitually, to ring the parlour bell whenever it wished the door to be opened. Some alarm was excited on the first occasion that it turned bell-ringer. The family had retired to rest, and in the middle of the night the parlour bell was rung violently; the sleepers were startled from their repose, and proceeded downstairs with poker and tongs, to intercept, as they thought, the predatory movements of some burglar; but they were equally surprised to find that the bell had been rung by p.u.s.s.y, who frequently repeated the act whenever she wished to get out of the parlour.' The cases, however, mentioned in the text are more remarkable than any of these, which, nevertheless, all tend to lead up to them as by a series of steps. Dogs attain to the level of asking by gesture their masters to ring bells. One instance will be sufficient to quote. Mr. Rae says in 'Nature' (vol. xix., p. 459): 'A small English terrier belonging to a friend has been taught to ring for the servant. To test if the dog knew _why_ it rang the bell he was told to do so while the girl was in the room. The little fellow looked up in the most intelligent manner at the person giving the order (his master or mistress, I forget which), then at the servant, and refused to obey, although the order was repeated more than once. The servant left the room, and a few minutes afterwards the dog rang the bell immediately on being told to do so.'

It must also be added that dogs sometimes attain to the level of knocking knockers--though I should think this must be very rare with these animals, as I have only met with one case of it. This, however, is a remarkably good case, not only because it rests upon the authority of a famous observer, but also because it is so very definite as proving an act of reason. Dureau de la Malle had a terrier born in his house. It had never seen a knocker in its native home, and when grown up it was taken by its master to Paris. Getting fatigued by a walk in the streets, the animal returned to the house, but found the door shut, and it endeavoured vainly to attract the attention of those within by barking.

At length a visitor called, knocked at the knocker, and gained admittance. The dog observed what had been done, and went in together with the visitor. The same afternoon he went in and out half a dozen times, gaining admittance on each occasion by springing at the knocker.

Lastly, Dr. W. H. Kesteven writes to 'Nature' (xx., p. 428) of a cat which used to knock at a knocker to gain admittance, in the way already described of so many other cats; but as showing how much more readily cats acquire this practice than dogs, it is interesting to note that Dr.

Kesteven adds that a dog which lived in the same house ascertained that the cat was able to gain admittance by knocking, and yet did not imitate the action, but 'was in the habit of searching for her when he wanted to come in, and either waiting till she was ready to knock at the door, or inducing her to do it to please him.'

[259] Consul E. L. Layard gives in _Nature_ (xx., p. 339) a precisely similar case of a cat habitually and without tuition ringing a bell by pulling at an exposed wire.

CHAPTER XV.