156 AFFECTIONS OF BIRDS. 



whi1,e-bellied field-mouse, with three or four youug Ciitgiug 

 to her teats by their mouths and feet. It was amazing that 

 the desultory and rapid motions of this dam should not 

 oblige her litter to quit their hold, especially when it 

 appeared that they were so young as to be both naked and 

 blind 1 * 



To these instances of tender attachment, many more of 

 which might be daily discovered by those that are studious 

 ot nature, may be opposed that rage of affection, that mon- 

 strous perversion of the oropyj), which induces some females 

 of the brute creation to devour their young, because their 

 owners have handled them too freely, or removed them from 

 place to place !t Swine, and sometimes the more gentle race 

 of dogs and cats, are guilty of this horrid and preposterous 

 murder. When I hear now and then of an abandoned 

 mother that destroys her offspring, I am not so much 

 amazed; since reason perverted, and the bad passions let 

 loose, are capable of any enormity ; but why the parental 

 feelings of brutes, that usually flow in one most uniform 

 tenor, should sometimes be so extravagantly diverted, 1 

 leave to abler philosophers than myself to determine. 



* I have seen the same thing with our common bat. I once slept, during a 

 very stormy night, in a house of considerable age, and not in the best state of 

 repair. One of the windows in my bed-room had been built up, but so loosely, 

 that bats and swifts had free access between the wall and a large board that 

 was placed on the inside, to add to the warmth of the room. On the night 

 above mentioned, this board was blown down inwards, and the room immedi- 

 ately filled with bats and swifts. Many of the former had one or two young 

 adhering to their breasts, while flying round the room, and, even when knocked 

 down, were not freed from their burdens. Above sixty were caught in this 

 email space, and at least as many must have escaped. They appear to be on 

 terms of perfect amity with the swifts. — W. J. 



•j- The pleasure which animals derive in having their milk drawn off by their 

 young, causes much of the tender attachment they have for them. Thus, a 

 fox which had lost its litter, stole a young puppy to suckle it ; and aaany 

 fiimilar instances might be brought forward. When animals, as is sometimes 

 but not often the case, have no milk after parturition, they frequently devow 

 their youngf —Ed. 



