408 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 



RABBITS. 



Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not only 

 bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents to 

 rise j hence warrens produce much the most delicate turf for 

 gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses. WHITE. 



CAT AND SQUIRRELS. 



A boy has taken three young squirrels in their nest or drey as 

 it is called in these parts. These small creatures he put under 

 the care of a cat who had lately lost her kittens, and finds that she 

 nurses and suckles them with the same assiduity and affection as 

 if they were her own offspring. This circumstance corroborates 

 my suspicion, that the mention of exposed and deserted children 

 being nurtured by female beasts of prey who had lost their young, 

 may not be so improbable an incident as many have supposed ; 

 and therefore may be a justification of those authors who have 

 gravely mentioned, what some have deemed to be a wild and 

 improbable story. 



So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, 

 that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, and in pain 

 for their safety ; and therefore hid them over the ceiling, where 

 one died. This circumstance shows her affection for these fond- 

 lings, and that she supposes the squirrels to be her own young. 

 Thus hens, when they have hatched ducklings, are equally attached 

 to them as if they were their own chickens. WHITE. 



HORSE. 



An old hunting mare, which ran on the common, being taken 

 very ill, ran down into the village, as it were, to implore the help 

 of men, and died the night following in the street. WHITE. 



HOUNDS. 



The king's stag-hounds came down to Alton, attended by a 

 huntsman and six yeomen prickers, with horns, to try for the stag 



