very uneasy one summer midnight and ran from one bedroomdoor to another with earnest mewing and crying. Having attracted the attention of one of the family, she led the way, watching carefully to see that she was followed, down the stairs and through the kitchen and cellar to the outside cellar-door, which had been left open. A house between Belfast and Hollywood, Ireland,[1] taking fire one night, the cat ran up-stairs to the servantmaid's room and pawed her face. The girl, only half aroused, turned to sleep again. After a few moments the cat returned and scratched the girl's face till she woke in earnest, and now smelling the smoke, aroused the rest of the family. The cat already mentioned, that went and brought help to deliver the parrot from miring in the dough, evidently realized the nature of the danger the bird was in, and how it could be remedied. Mr. James K. Gilmore's (Edmund Kirk's) cat, finding one night, when she came home from her rambles, that the door leading to the veranda was open, took pains to give notice of it to the family. The same animal, when the family were all in other parts of the house, ran up to her mistress and demanded to be followed. She led the lady directly to the kitchen, and there was a strange man who had intruded himself into the vacant room. Mr. Gilmore relates several other anecdotes of this cat, which show that she understood the value of human help in emergencies—particularly in cases where her kittens were in trouble—and upon whom to call. She also understood that whatever demands she might make upon her master in the daytime, his night's rest must not be disturbed. At that time she always went to her mistress.
A cat is told of in the Boston Post which was accustomed to go in the summer with the family to the country. On the occasion of one of the vacations she appeared anxious about her kitten, and at last put it in one of the trunks.
A cat and a starling belonging to Mr. Dupré, of Kensington, England, were great friends and almost constant companions. One day the cat suddenly pounced upon the starling, but, instead of making an end of it, took it carefully up and set it upon a table; then rushed out of the room to chastise a strange cat which had stolen into the house. The forethought it exhibited in securing the safety of its friend before going into the fight seems to justify our attributing to it the highest degree of intelligence which any of the authors we have quoted are willing to accredit to animals.
A cat of Mr. Brown, of Greenock, Scotland, having had some paraffin accidentally spilled upon it and set ablaze by a cinder from the fire, at once rushed out of the door and up the street for about a hundred yards; plunged headlong into the village water-
- ↑ Nature.
