312 SINGULAR INCUBATION. 



evinced towards her was duly reciprocated. His fate was 

 sad ; for one fine day tlie kitchen-maid, mistaking liim 

 for another, chopped off his head !" 



Eggs, whether of the Mallard or other bird, are at 

 tinies incubated in a strange way. " Whilst the shoe- 

 maker Defer, the carpenter Faldin, and the son of the 

 latter, were engaged in measuring some land on the shores 

 of the Lake Hjelmar," so we are informed *by M. Hamn- 

 strdm, " they disturbed a wild duck from her nest, con- 

 taining nine eggs, which Fiildin carried home, for the 

 purpose of ])lacing them under a hen. On his arrival 

 there, however, and whilst maliing inquiries after a dry 

 nurse, the eggs were laid on a bed, with a sheep-skin 

 coverlid, on which a cat and her kittens, then some eight 

 days old, had previously taken up their abode. This 

 was on the 19th of May ; after which time grimalkin and 

 her progeny, the former for the most part, and the latter 

 constantly, contrived to keep the eggs warm, and that 

 without injuring, or even displacing, a single one. 



" On Tuesday, the 27th of May, the first and second 

 of the ducklings wev& hatched, when Mrs. Faldin thought 

 it most prudent to separate the otherwise well-behaved 

 cat from her young stei^-children ; who, nevertheless, 

 were allowed to remain with their four-footed foster 

 brethi'en. The following day Mrs. Fiildin's sensible and 

 motherly care was crowned with a successful issue, for 

 four more ducklings appeared, and all six found them- 

 selves well satisfied with the warmth they derived from 

 the kittens. On Thursday, the 29th, a seventh egg was 

 also vivified, the remaining two proving rotten. 



" During the space of near a week Mrs. Paldin was 

 fortunate enough to retain all the seven alive. They 

 drank milk like the kittens, and swam and disported 

 themselves in a tub of water placed at hand for the 

 purpose ; the old cat looking on with great seeming satis- 



