exhibition of this singular humor. A well-grown and
thoroughly domesticated cat, one that seemed more than usually
attached to people, was brought from my house in town to a place on
the shore. When released, the creature seemed for some days to be
nearly insane. It did not recognize any of its friends, it betook
itself to the fields, and was with difficulty captured at the end
of a week of roaming, during which it appeared to have had no food.
Confined within one room, it gradually recovered its powers of mind,
and began to take account of its friends. In the course of a month it
seemed to be reconciled to its surroundings. Nine months after its
first sojourn in the wilderness it was again brought from the town to
the same place. On the second visit the creature was somewhat uneasy,
but this passed away in a day or two. On a third visit, after a like
interval, it seemed at once and entirely at home. Nevertheless, its
habits while in the country differ very much from those it has in
town. In its original domicile it insists on being about the table at
meal-times. While in the country it does not care to be present; in
fact, it appears to avoid associations with the household. It seems
to me that this cat, after the manner of some men whose brains are
diseased, now lives in two distinct states of consciousness, each
relating to one of its places of abode.

[Illustration: Hounds Running a Wild Boar
(Showing the habit of attacking neck of prey.) ]

The differences as regards affection for localities which is shown by
cats and dogs are perhaps to be accounted for by an original and
essential variation in the habits of life in their wild ancestors.
Judging by the kindred of the species which are known to us in their
wild state, we may fairly suppose that the dogs were of old accustomed
to range over a wide field, having no fixed place of abode; the pack
ranging, if the occasion served, for hundreds of miles in any direction.
On the other hand, with the cats, it is characteristic of the species
that they have lairs to which they resort, and a definite hunting ground
in which they seek their food. They are, in a word, animals of very
determined routine. As there has been no effort by breeding to change
this feature, it has remained in all its old ingrained intensity.

As a consequence of the affection which cats have for particular places,
they often return to the wilderness when by chance the homes