37o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



had been brought half frozen to the house to be taken care of. 

 She was found in his box trying " to quiet him and get him to 

 accept her as his mother. Her kitten would cry, and she would 

 leave the pig for a few minutes and go and quiet that, and then 

 she would go back to the pig and try her best to make him com- 

 fortable/' At last she took her kitten into the box with the pig. 

 Rosy, an excellent ratter on a Belfast schooner, made friends at 

 once with a pet rat that was brought on board, slept and played 

 with it for two weeks, and allowed it to take many liberties with 

 herself. Don Pierrot de Navarre and Seraphita, cats of The'ophile 

 Gautier, lived on the most friendly terms with their master's 

 troop of white rats. Don Pierrot was especially fond of the rats, 

 and would sit by their cage and watch them for hours together. 

 If the door of the room where they were kept happened to be shut, 

 he would insist, by scratching and mewing, on its being opened 

 to him. Tabby, of Hyde Park, near Boston, having lost her kit- 

 tens, took a brood of motherless chickens under her care. Know- 

 ing of them, she begged to be admitted to them. The experiment 

 was tried. She looked at them a moment, then sprang into the 

 box and, purring, nestled down among them. This was the be- 

 ginning of a constant service of six months, during which Tabby 

 would play with the chickens ; would try to carry them by the 

 neck as she would her own kittens ; and persisted in licking their 

 feathers the wrong way. 



Mr. J. M. Coffinberry, of Cleveland, Ohio, writes to us that 

 when, some forty-three years ago, he took possession of a certain 

 house in Findlay, Ohio, the attention of the family " was called to 

 a brood of young chicks by a cat who seemed to devote her time 

 and attention to them. The ground being covered with two or 

 three inches of snow, my wife fed them regularly, so that we saw 

 much of them. The cat frequently purred to them, and they 

 came at her call and followed her as closely as young chickens 

 follow the mother hen. They lodged together in a wood-shed ad- 

 jacent to the house for about three months, but in the early spring 

 the chickens, being well fledged, abandoned their winter quarters 

 and flew into the higher branches of a fruit tree to roost. The 

 cat purred and mewed, and seemed much disgusted at their change 

 of lodgings, but soon accepted the situation and climbed to the 

 tree-top and roosted with the chickens." This continued during 

 the few months that the family occupied this house. Mr. Coffin- 

 berry asks some questions as to what was in the cat's mind or 

 heart that prompted her to this parental act. It is easily ex- 

 plained if the qualities which he and many authors claim for cats 

 are conceded to them. A correspondent, M C , of Na- 

 ture, tells of a cat and dog who, having been brought into the 

 family at about the same time, grew up friends and fast com- 



