ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. o3 



THE CAT AND THE SQUIRREL-A FOSTER-MATERNAL FREAK. 



We have all heard of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf and 

 similar, and perhaps better authenticated, stories. But until a few days ago I 

 never had the chance to see a cat nursing a squirrel. 



First I must tell the adventures of the cat, the heroine of the tale. One evening, 

 when dressing for dinner, I threw a garment into my dirty clothes basket. Out 

 bounced a cat to my great surprise and temporary discomfiture. Hearing faint 

 squeaks from the basket I looked in and saw three little kittens snugly nestled in 

 the folds of crumpled shirts and other things. The outraged mother, a cat of 

 decent appearance, with perhaps a dash of Persian blood in her, had belonged to a 

 friend next door, but on his departure, had been left behind, as cats too frequently 

 are, to become a homeless vagabond. Though keenly sympathising with the cat 

 and her troubles, it was out of the question that she should be allowed to make 

 my clothes basket a lying-in hospital. Her feelings towards me were no doubt 

 similar to those entertained by Calverley's cat towards the pot boy who 



" Peep'd with a scared wan face ; 

 Then sent a random brick-bat down which knocked her into space. 

 Had I, as some cats have, nine tails, how gladly would 1 lick 

 The hand and person generally, of him who heaved that brick." 



However I did not heave a brick at her. I only had the kittens firmly but 

 tenderly ejected, and sent off to the back premises of the next house, where the 

 cat was supposed to have her domicile. But the cat had National League ideas, 

 and was not going to submit tamely to eviction. On my returning from dining 

 out, there she was again with all her family complete in my clothes basket. 

 The process of eviction was then repeated, the kittens deposited as before 

 in the verandah of the cook-room next door. To make re-entry impossible, I put 

 the lid o:r the basket, shut the door and window of my dressing-room, and went 

 to bed. I certainly thought I had got rid of the family this time. But the old 

 cat was not to be done so easily. " Give up? give up, be blowed," said she. Next 

 morning cat and kittens were found calmly established on a pile of magazines on 

 a book shelf in my office. Summary eviction was again necessary, but this time 

 my wife interceded, and accommodated the family with a box in the verandah 

 close by ; there a few hours afterwards one kitten died, and a fourth was born 

 and took its place. 



Why the cat had such strong opinions as to the propriety of bringing up her 

 vagabond progeny in my house I can'tconceive. We had never taken the slightest 

 notice of her, and her appearance, before this episode occurred, would certainly 

 have resulted in her being introduced to a couple of fox-terriers, whose manners, 

 in the presence of cats, are more forcible than polite 



Now comes the squirrel part of the story. On the day following the installation 

 of the cat in the box in the verandah, my wife found a tiny baby squirrel 

 (Sciurus palmarum) clinging to a creeper in the porch. It had no doubt tumbled 

 out of its nest somewhere in the eaves. It looked the picture of misery, shiver- 

 ing and woe- begone. Happy thought ! Put the little waif in with the kittens. As 

 the old lady was out on the rampage at the time, no sooner said than done. 



