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 relationship, 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 apron, 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 morass 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 cock bird, which was all the while flying about in great consternation, might be induced to approach near enough to be caught. Many times the cock 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 assembled birds. Now, so far, this circumstance 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.[256]