160. I find that
the fact of cats protruding their feet when pleased is also noticed
(p. 151) in this work.
Having referred to the act of sucking, I may add that this complex movement,
as well as the alternate protrusion of the fore-feet, are reflex actions;
for they are performed if a finger moistened with milk is placed
in the mouth of a puppy, the front part of whose brain has been
removed.[17] It has recently been stated in France, that the action
of sucking is excited solely through the sense of smell, so that
if the olfactory nerves of a puppy are destroyed, it never sucks.
In like manner the wonderful power which a chicken possesses only a few
hours after being hatched, of picking up small particles of food,
seems to be started into action through the sense of hearing;
for with chickens hatched by artificial heat, a good observer found
that "making a noise with the finger-nail against a board, in imitation
of the hen-mother, first taught them to peck at their meat."[18]
[17] Carpenter, `Principles of Comparative Physiology,' 1854, p. 690, and
Muller's `Elements of Physiology,' Eng. translat. vol. ii. p. 936.
[18] Mowbray on `Poultry,' 6th edit.
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