I IO 



Till'. (UmE TO XATL'RE 



HE GANDER (AT TTIE LEFT) LATER HAS SEVERAL DUCK AFFINITIES. 



;i rule and not an exception, has 

 stunted her otherwise delicate sense of 

 morality. During the last few days, 

 the duck and the gander seemed to 

 have had a serious quarrel, and the 

 gentleman has been rather lonesome, 

 and he has to wait a very long time, in 

 front of the nest, until he can get either 

 one of his sweethearts away with him 

 to the Coney Island pond 



The Cat That "Mothei .d" Squirrels. 

 Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. 

 To the Editor: 



Late in February a farmer living 

 near town was out hunting and shot a 

 couple of squirrels. He found that one 

 of them was a young mother, so be- 

 gan looking about for the nest and 

 soon found it in a near by tree. As his 

 little boy who was with him was very 

 anxious for the pets, he climbed up to 

 the nest and found three little fellows 

 not more than a day old. Supposing 



he could not raise them, he put them 

 in his pocket and took them home as 

 an extra meal for old puss who had 

 "met with bad luck with her own family 

 and lost all but one kitten. On placing 

 the squirrels in her nest he expected 

 her to pounce on them and eat them ; 

 but to his astonishment she pulled 

 them up to her and began to purr and 

 fondle them. She changed her nest 

 several times, carrying the squirrels as 

 she did the kitten. Even after the squir- 

 rels were w r eaned she played with them. 

 The strange part is that this cat was 

 raiseo in the woods and many times 

 has fed her young on squirrels she had 



caught. 



Very truly yours, 

 L. Frank Gunn, 



A similar story, illustrated by the 

 frontispiece, was told by Geo. W. Irving 

 of W'aterville, Xew York, in The 

 Guide to Nature for May, 1939 — page 

 70. 





the cat nursing grey squirrels. 



