Cat: Its Natural History, Varieties and Management — Essay on Feline Instinct, part 1

I.

Mitis and Riquet are two tom-cats saved from a litter of five; their mother is an Angora, slate-coloured, with the neck, breast, and tips of the paws white.

Mitis has a large head and limbs, and a coat which promises to be Angora and the same colour as his mother's, a white muzzle, and white underneath his eyes, while his lips and the tip of his nose are bright pink.

Riquet's body and tail are black, with grey marks; his head, which is smaller than his brother's, is grey, with zebra-like bands of black crossing longitudinally and laterally; two white streaks branch out from the upper end of the nose, and on the forehead two curved lines, starting from the corners of his eyes, surround a disc of black and grey.

No sooner has their mother licked them over than they set off whining and seeking for her teats.

I made some observations of their movements on the first and second days; but as I am afraid of not recording them with sufficient accuracy from memory, I will begin with the third day, when I took to writing down my observations.

_12th May.

_--They are perpetually moving about, even when sucking and sleeping.

Sleep overtakes them in the act of sucking, and then, according to what position they were in at the moment, they either remain ensconced in their mother's silky breast, or fall over with open mouths into some graceful attitude.

The little gluttons, Riquet especially, who seems to be delicately organised, are often troubled with hiccoughs, reminding one of young children who have sucked too copiously.

It is curious to watch them when searching for a teat, turning their heads abruptly from right to left, and left to right, pushing now with their foreheads, now with their muzzles; tumbling and jumping one over the other, sliding between their mother's legs, trying to suck no matter what part of her body; and finally, when they have settled down to their meal, resembling leeches, whose whole activity is concentrated on the work of suction, and who, as soon as they have thoroughly gorged themselves, let go their hold and fall back into _inertia_.

Whenever their sensibility is unpleasantly excited, as, for instance, if their mother leans on them too heavily, or leaves them alone, or performs their toilet too roughly, they give vent to monotonous--I had almost said monosyllabic--plaints; sounds which can scarcely be called _mias_, still less _miaows_; they are best described as trembling _mi-i-is_.

They also emit these plaintive sounds when they have been searching long for a teat without finding one, or if they annoy each other during the laborious search; or if I take them up too quickly, or turn them over in the palm of my hand to examine them.

If I set them up in my hand in a standing position, they will remain motionless for a few seconds, as if enjoying the warmth of my hand; but very soon again they begin clamouring with loud whines for their home in the mother's warm, soft stomach, which is at once their shelter and their dining-room, the familiar, and perhaps the loved, theatre of their nascent activity.

_13th May.

_--This morning Mitis appeared to be ill.

He was languid, did not whine when I took him up, and made no attempt at sucking; he had an attack of hiccoughs, accompanied by shiverings all over his body, which made me anxious.

It only lasted an hour, however: there may have been some temporary cause of indisposition; or perhaps excessive sucking, or a very great need of sleep, had reduced him to a semi-inert mass.

Riquet's head is prettier than it was yesterday; the white spot has increased in size, the grey marks have spread and grown lighter, and the head and neck are rather larger; but Mitis has still by far the finest carriage.

_Twelve o'clock.

_--The two leeches have been operating for twenty minutes without desisting.

They are now brimful of milk, and settling themselves down, no matter where--one on the mother's stomach, the other on her paws;

no sooner have they placed themselves than they fall asleep.

_Two o'clock.

_--They have no fixed position for sucking; any does that comes first.

When the mother leaves them alone for a moment they turn in rapid gyrations round and round, over and under each other, delighting in the mutual contact of their bodies and the warmth which it engenders.

If the mother remains absent for some minutes, they end by falling asleep one over the other in the shape of a cross.

If I lift up the top one, the other soon begins to whine: they are not accustomed to solitude, and it produces a painful impression of cold.

Very young animals are easily chilled, and sometimes die of cold in a temperature which is not very low.

This is owing to the smallness of their bodies and the feebleness of their respiratory organs.

Between four and five o'clock Riquet seemed to me very lively.

He was searching for a teat which he could not find, and for ten minutes he crossed backwards and forwards over his brother's body, giving him frequent slaps with his paws.

Riquet's nose is a pink-brown, but tending to red-brown.

This evening (ten o'clock) I showed the mother a saucer full of milk; she left her kittens to go and drink it, and afterwards she took a turn at a plate of porridge; her absence lasted barely five minutes.

The kittens, during this time, went through their usual manoeuvres: Riquet turned three times running round his brother; the latter, who is more indolent, or perhaps has more need of sleep, stretched himself out full length on his side.

Riquet, however, cannot rest till he has found what he is searching for--viz.

, the body of his mother.

He is still in a state of agitation when the cat comes back, raises herself with her front-paws on the edge of the box, and drops quietly down by the side of her little ones without touching them.

Instantly they start up, raising their little waggling heads; they know that their mother is there--the slight noise she made in getting into the box, and the movement she imparted to it, are associated in their memory with the idea of her presence.

The mother's first care is to see to their toilet, and she proceeds to turn them over with two or three strokes of her tongue, and then operates on them with the same natural instrument.

Both have their turn; and at the end of the operation, which seems to worry them, they whine considerably, though not at all loud.

A few minutes after, the melodious snoring of the mother informs me that the whole family is at rest.

I take a peep at them: the mother is laid on her left side, describing a large and elegant curve;

Mitis, half on his hind-paws, half on his stomach, is stretched across Riquet, and both are sleeping, or sucking--perhaps doing both at the same time.

_14th May.

_--My kittens seem to grow as I watch them, especially Mitis' head, neck, and back; he is a massive heavy kitten, but his forehead is broad and high: he will probably be an intelligent cat; his leonine chin, large and well developed, indicates energy and goodness.

He begins to show more vivacity than during the earlier days; when he encounters his brother in searching for a teat, or if the latter disputes with him the one he has got hold of, he deals out at him rapid strokes with his paw, which remind one of a dog swimming.

His mother has just been performing his toilet in the manner aforesaid, and has no doubt kept him longer at it than he liked; he shows his displeasure by striking out his hind paws, one of which knocks against his ear, and uttering two or three impatient _mis_.

These very occasional and but slightly emphasised cries are the only ones which Riquet--even the brisk and lively Riquet--gives out, even when I take him in my hand.

I have seen other cats that were more unhappy complain more: one, for instance, which was the only one I had kept out of a litter, and which died at ten days old, just as it was beginning to open its eyes; in her grief at having lost all her other kittens, the mother used to carry this one about from place to place, and even leave it alone for hours at a time; I believe it died from bad treatment and insufficient feeding; the poor little thing frequently uttered loud moanings.

I cannot feel the slightest doubt as to the causes of its death when I see the mother so happy with the two that I have left her this time; she has not once called or searched for the other three which I drowned.

Does this proceed from a want of arithmetical aptitude?

_Two_, for her, are _many_ as well as _five_.

However this may be, she is very happy, very _repue_, very attentive, and her little ones are habituated to comfort, ease, satisfied desires, and tranquil sleep and digestion.

If they do not know how to complain I think it is because they have had no reason to learn to do so.

The colour of Riquet's hair is changing sensibly: the grey-white now preponderates on his face.

The velvety black of his neck, back, and sides is silvered with whitish tints, which have spread since the morning.

Often when they are alone, or even if their mother is with them, they will mistake no matter what part of their bodies for teats and begin to suck it, as a child of six months will suck its finger or even the tip of its foot.

_15th May.

_--To-day I held Riquet on my hand for three minutes.

I was smoking a cigar; the little creature stretched out its neck, poked its nose up in the air, and sniffed with a persistent little noise.

A sparrow, whose cage was hung up over us, frightened at my smoking-cap, began to fly round the cage and beat at it with its wings.

At the sound of this noise Riquet was seized with a sudden fit of trembling, which made him squat down precipitately in my hand.

Movements of this kind are reflex ones, the production of which is associated in the organism with certain auditory impressions; but the animal is necessarily more or less conscious of them, or will soon be so.

From five minutes' observation I have thus learnt that Riquet is sensible to strong smells, and that he already goes through the consecutive movements of sentiment and fear.

Riquet's head is visibly changing to silver-grey; the marks on his back are also assuming this shade.

I took Mitis in my hands, stretched them out and drew them up again.

He does not seem to know quite what to make of it; he attempts a few steps, feels about uncertainly with his head, and comes in contact with my coat smelling of the cigar; he appears to be scenting my coat, but not with so much noise and vivacity as Riquet does.

He waggles his head about, feels about with his paws, and tries to suck my coat and my hands; he is evidently out of his element and unhappy.

The mother calls to him from the bottom of the box; this causes him to turn his head quickly in the direction from which the sound comes (what a number of movements or ideas associated in the intelligence and organism of a little animal four days old!

); he starts off again, making a step forward, then drawing back, turning to the right and to the left, with a waddling movement.

I give him back to his mother.

I thought I noticed once again this evening that the light of my lamp, when held near the kittens' box, caused rather lively excitation of their eyelids, although these were closed.

The light must pass through these thin coverings and startle the retinas.

The kittens were agitated during a few seconds; they raised and shook their heads, then lowered them and hid them in the maternal bosom.

The noise of carriages, the sound of my voice, the twittering of the sparrow, the movements imparted to the box by my hand--all throw them into the same kind of agitation.

These movements may be coupled with the movements, unconscious no doubt, but determined by external causes, which are observed in the young.

_16th May.

_--Mitis' tail is thickening at the root; the hair of its head and neck is close and silky; he will no doubt turn out a considerable fraction of an Angora.

When I place the kittens on the palm of my hand they inhale strongly and with a certain amount of persistence; this is because their sense of smell operates no doubt with tolerable completeness, in view of the species, and in the absence of visual perception, and by reason of the imperfect operation of their touch.

This evening Mitis, having escaped from the constraint in which his mother holds him to perform his toilet, half _plantigrade_ half _gastéropode_, dragged himself slowly, though as fast as he was able, along his mother's paws, and at last nestled down in the soft fur of her stomach.

While in this position his head, rolling like that of a drunken man, knocked against the head of Riquet, who was in the act of sucking.

Instantly Mitis lifts a paw and brings it down on his brother's head.

The latter holds on, as he is very comfortably spread out on the bottom of the box, and is sucking a teat placed low down.

A second attempt of Mitis' fails equally.

He then performs rapid movements with his head, searching vigorously for his cup, but not finding it.

The mother then places a paw on his back, and his centre of gravity being thus better established, he at last accomplishes his object.

Here we have several actions which are no doubt in some degree conscious, but which come chiefly under the head of automatism: the scent which helps in the search for the teat, the instinct to dispute the ground with another who is discovered to be sucking, the movements of intentional repulsion, of struggle, of combativeness.

What an admirable machine for sensation, sentiment, volition, activity, and consciousness, is a young animal only just born!

_17th May.

_--I have observed--or think I have observed--in Mitis, the more indolent of the two brothers, the first symptoms of playfulness: lying on his back with his mouth half open, he twiddles his four paws with an air of satisfaction, and as if seeking to touch some one or something.

It is eight o'clock in the evening, the window is open, the sparrow is singing with all its might in its cage, we are talking and laughing close to the cat's box.

Do all these noises in some way excite the sensoriums of the two _repus_ kittens?

The fact is, that they have been in a state of agitation for more than a quarter of an hour, travelling one over the other and walking over their mother's stomach, paws, and head.

Mitis, the heavier of the two and soonest tired out, was the first to return to the teat.

Riquet's return to the maternal breast has been a long and roundabout journey from one corner of the box to the other, and round and round his mother.

At nine o'clock I went to look at them with the light.

This threw them into dreadful consternation.

I observe in them both something like intentions to bite, while rolling each other over, they keep their mouths open, and snap instead of sucking when they come in contact with any part of each other's bodies; but it is all mechanical.

Here we have an increase of activity produced by an accession of powers and temporary over-excitement.

_18th May.

_--They are lying asleep on their sides, facing each other, with their fore-paws half stretched out against the hind ones.

Riquet's sleep is much disturbed; his mouth touches one of his brother's paws, which he instantly begins to suck.

Is this a mechanical or unconscious action?

Is he not possibly dreaming?

After four or five attempts at sucking he lets go the paw, and sleeps on tranquilly for four minutes; but the noise of a carriage passing in the street, and perhaps the consequent vibration of the floor and the bottom of the box, cause violent trembling in his lips, paws, and tail.

The mother gets back in the box; and the kittens, instantly awake and erect, utter three or four _mis_ to welcome the joyful return.

In settling herself down the mother leans rather heavily on Riquet; the latter, who used formerly to extricate himself mechanically, and who already knows from experience the inconvenience of such a position, moves off brusquely, goes further away than he would have done formerly, and Mitis, on the lookout for a teat, hears close to him the noise of his brother's sucking.

He pommels his head with his hind-paws, rolls up against him, striking out with his fore-paws, and knocks him over with the weight of his body; he is now in possession of the teat which his brother had first tried, and, finding it as good as the one he was sucking before, he sticks to it.

_18th May.

_--Mitis was trying to worry Riquet who was busy sucking.

I hold out my hand to make a barrier between the two; Mitis pushes it back with his paw, but soon perceives the difference between the two bodies which he is pushing against, gives over his excitement, and looks out for another teat.

No doubt in this case there was no comparative perception of difference, but different sensations producing different muscular actions;

that is all, I imagine, but this is nevertheless the germ of veritable comparison.

_19th May.

_--Both the eyes of both kittens are about to open; the eyelids seem slightly slit, and are covered with an oozy film.

At the external corner of Mitis' right eye there is a little round opening disclosing a pale blue speck of eyeball, the size of a pin's head.

At the internal commissure of the left eye there is also a round opening, but much smaller, and showing no eye-ball through it.

Riquet's right eye is also opening slightly; the edges of the left eyelids are stopped up by a yellowish discharge.

I fancied that Mitis was playing in the box; I tumbled him over on his back, tickled his stomach, and stroked his head; he struck out his paws without attempting to pick himself up; this was evidently a more or less conscious attempt at play.

His mother came to lick him in this attitude, and he performed with his fore-paws as previously.

Riquet, too, shows a tendency to play, but not of such a pronounced nature.

_21st May.

_--Riquet's left eye is beginning to open at the inside corner.

I took them both up on my hand, and waved my fingers in front of their partially opened eyes; but I did not observe any movement from which I could infer the power of distinguishing objects.

Mitis, placed close to his mother's head, nibbles at it and plays with his paws on her nose; the mother does not approve of this amusement; she lays a paw on her son's neck and teaches him respect; soon he escapes from her grasp, and begins searching for a teat.

Some streaks of fawn-colour have mixed with the zebra-like black and grey on Riquet's neck: he is now quadri-coloured.

Mitis is seated on my hand.

I kiss him on the head, three times running, making a slight noise with my lips; he shakes his head twice.

This is an habitual movement of the mother cat when one kisses her or strokes her head and it displeases, or if she is occupied with something else.

When I pass my hand in front of their heads, at about four _centimètres'_ distance, they make a movement with the head and wink their eyes; I am not sure whether this means that they see, though their eyes have been more or less open since yesterday evening.

They have not yet begun to purr.

_22nd May.

_--I went up to the box towards twelve o'clock.

Riquet's left eye, the light blue colour of which I can see, seems to perceive me, but it must be very indistinctly.

I wave my hand at ten _centimètres_ from his eyes, and it is only the noise I make and the disturbance of the air that cause him to make any movement.

Both Mitis' eyes are almost entirely open; I hold my finger near his nose without touching it, I wave it from right to left and left to right, and I fancy I perceive in the eyes--in the eyes more than in the head--a slight tendency to move in the direction of my movements.

_23rd May_, 7 P. M.

--Their movements are less trembling, quicker, and fierce not only because of increased strength and exercise, but because intention, directed by eyesight, is beginning to operate.

The more I observe young animals, the more it seems to me that the external circumstances of their development--alimentation, exercise (more or less stimulated and controlled), ventilation, light, attention to their health and their _affective_ sensibilities, care in breeding and training,--are perhaps only secondary factors in their development.

Actual sensations, it seems to me, serve only to bring to the service one set of virtualities rather than another; a sentient, intelligent, active being is a tangled skein of innumerable threads, some of which, and not others, will be drawn out by the events of life.

This it is that marks out the precise work, limits the power, but at the same time encourages all the pretensions of educators.

If all is not present in all, as Jacolot asserted, who can say what is and what is not present in a young animal or a young child?

I placed Mitis on a foot-warmer, the contact with which produced two or three nervous tremblings, somewhat similar to slight shiverings; he seemed pleased, however, and stretched himself out on the warm surface, with his eyes half-closed, as if going to sleep.

Afterwards I placed Riquet there;

he went through the same trembling movements, but then proceeded with an inspection with his muzzle--scenting or feeling, I do not know which, the article on which he had been deposited.

He then gently stretched out a paw and laid himself down flat, the contact with the warm surface inducing sleep, by reason of the familiar associations between the like sensation of warmth experienced on his mother's breast and the instinctive need of sleep.

When they trot about in their box, some of their movements appear to be directed by sight.

Their ears have lengthened perceptibly during the last two days, and so have their tails.

When any one walks about the room, if they are not asleep or sucking, they begin frisking about immediately.

The mother, whom I sent to take a little exercise in the courtyard, has been absent for half an hour.

Mitis is asleep; Riquet, lying with his head on his brother's neck, was awakened by the sound of my footsteps, all the more easily roused no doubt because he was hungry, and because his mother had been absent so long.

I stroke his head with my finger, and he puts on a smiling look.

I make a little noise with my lips to rouse the sparrow, and this noise pleases Riquet, who listens with the same smiling countenance.

They now attempt to climb higher; they do not knock their noses so frequently against the partitions of the box, they certainly direct their paws at certain points determined by their vision; eyes, noses, and paws now operate in concert on the teats or any other objects that come across their way; for they do not go much in search of objects as yet.

Their field of vision does not stretch very far; what they see is matter of chance and accident rather than of real intention.

If I wish to attract their attention by waving my hand, I must not hold it further than fifteen _centimètres_ from their eyes.

I must go very close to them before they appear to distinguish my person.

I am not sure that they see the whole of it; I rather think that only certain portions are visible to them,--amongst others my nose, because it stands out in relief, and my eyes, because they reflect the light vividly.

_24th May_, 9 P. M.

--The orbits of their eyes seem to me rather more expanded than this morning, possibly because the light makes their pupils contract.

I placed a candle on a chair by the side of their box; the light evidently annoyed them, but it stimulated them to exercise their limbs.

Mitis, after having promenaded and struggled about in a corner of the box, and grown accustomed to the lively sensations on his retina, directs his steps towards the most brightly-lighted point of the box.

A band of light falls full on the upper part of the partition on the side facing me.

Mitis, and Riquet after him,--more from imitation than personal excitement,--tries to climb up this luminous board; he does not succeed, but the attraction continues undiminished.

I thought involuntarily of the plants which struggle up walls to reach the light.

Mitis, still somewhat disconcerted--though much less so than at first--when he looks directly at light, retires into a corner, and tired, no doubt, with the exercise he has just been taking, places himself, or rather falls back, on his mother's tail.

I take him up gently, and set him in front of his mother's stomach, and by the side of Riquet, who had just finished his gambols also, and was sucking.

Then began a scuffle, the front paws working away perceptibly like the _battoirs_ of a washerwoman.

I come to the rescue, placing my hand between them, and this calms them down; they favour me, however, with a few ridiculous little taps.

Mitis, meanwhile, has taken possession of the contested teat, and celebrates his victory by the first _purr_ that to my knowledge he has produced.

Riquet is now in a great state of agitation; he is lying in the dark, behind his mother's back, and close to the side of the box facing me.

I

hold my finger to him; he lifts himself up and leans his head slowly forward to touch or scent my finger.

He can now distinguish people, but more by touch, scent, or hearing than by sight, the latter sense being very imperfectly developed and little exercised.

When I make a slight noise with my lips the little creature starts and jumps about, but does not lift up his eyes to my face, which he has seen close to him, has looked at with attention, but which he is very imperfectly acquainted with, and does not accurately localise with respect to my hand and my body.

Riquet is close to his mother's head.

He has stretched a paw over her neck, and is looking at some part or other of her head, I don't know which, while playing gently with his little paw.

Here we see an intelligent development of affection; he now loves his mother in a more conscious way; his visual and tactile perceptions are becoming co-ordinated, are amplifying his knowledge, and giving strength and precision to his sentiments.