286 



mi'. (iUIDE TO NATURE 



A HEN BROODING FIVE KITiENS. 



Cut by couitesy of "(_)ui- Dumb Animals," Boston, Massachusetts. 



Hen Mother's Five Kittens. 



Mrs. Mary 1. Glover, 318 North Ave- 

 nue A, Canton, Illinois, has a buff Ply- 

 mouth Rock hen that is acting the part 

 of mother to live kittens, about six 

 weeks old, says the Daily Register of 

 that city. That this statement is no 

 mere "newspaper story" is attested by 

 the accompanying photograph, sent to 

 Our Dumb Animals by a Canton cor- 

 respondent. 



The hen had been sitting perhaps ten 

 days, when she left her nest to feed, 

 and while strolling about the barn she 

 discovered the kittens, whose nest was 

 in a tub, and proceeded to adopt the 

 litter and preempted their home. She 

 will fight for the kittens and seems very 

 much attached to them. 



Mrs. Glover has attempted to per- 

 suade the hen to go back to her nest of 

 eggs, in fact she has taken her back 

 several times, but the hen apparently 

 prefers the company of the kittens and 

 immediately returns to them. 



Equally strange is the story of the 

 mother cat which has adopted a crip- 

 pled chicken, a few miles out of Favette 

 City, Pennsylvania. The Journal of 

 that town tells how Mr. Charles Grant 

 took a number of chicks from an incu- 

 bator, among them one so puny and 



sickly that it was not expected to sur- 

 vive. But Mother Cat took it gently in 

 her jaws, placed it in the nest with her 

 kittens, and now tenderly cares for it 

 and makes over it as if it were one of 

 her own kind. The chick is flourishing 

 and follows the feline mother wherever 

 she goes. — Our Dumb Animals. 



Old Museums Vigorous and Growing. 



The oldest natural history museum 

 within the limits of the United States 

 was founded at Charleston, South Caro- 

 lina, in 1773. That at Salem, Massachu- 

 setts, followed next, in 1799, as a repos- 

 itory for the curious treasures which 

 the old shipmasters brought back from 

 the ends of the earth to what was then 

 one of the chief seaports of the country. 

 The museum of the Philadelphia Acad- 

 emy of Sciences dates back to 1812; 

 that of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History to 1830. Of three great collec- 

 tions of the United States, the Natural 

 Museum at Washington started in 

 1846; the Agassiz Museum at Cam- 

 bridge, in 1852 ; and the Metropolitan 

 Museum in New York City in 1869. 

 All these old institutions are still as 

 vigorous, as flourishing, and as up-to- 

 date as if they were the youngest in 

 the land. 



