"
Again he says: "The cat has a language of sounds and gestures to express
its feelings and emotions. So have we. But we have further--which
neither the cat, nor the bird, nor the beast has--a language and
gestures to express our thoughts." The sum of his conclusions seems to
be that while the cat has a most highly developed nervous system, and
much of what is known as "animal intelligence," it is not a human
intelligence--not consciousness, but "con-sentience."
Elsewhere St. George Mivart doubts if a cat distinguishes odors as such.
Perhaps a cat starts for the kitchen the instant he smells meat because
of the mental association of the scent with the gratification of hunger;
but why, pray tell, do some cats evince such delight in delicate
perfumes? Our own Pomp the First, for instance, had a most demonstrative
fondness for violets, and liked the scent of all flowers. One winter I
used to bring home a bunch of Parma or Russian violets every day or two,
and put them in a small glass bowl of water. It soon became necessary to
put them on the highest shelf in the room, and even then Pompey would
find them. Often have I placed them on the piano, and a few minutes
later seen him enter the room, lift his nose, give a few sniffs, and
then go straight to the piano, bury his nose in the violets, and hold it
there in perfect ecstacy. And usually, wherever they were placed, the
bunch was found the next morning on the floor, where Pompey had carried
the violets, and holding them between his paws for a time, had surfeited
himself with their delicious fragrance.
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