366 OBSERVATIONS 



CAT AND SQUIRRELS. A boy has taken three little 

 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 off- 

 spring. This circumstance corroborates my suspi- 

 cion, that the mention of exposed and deserted chil- 

 dren 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 shews her affection for these 

 foundlings, 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 that has 



* The squirrel's nest is not only called a drey in Hampshire, 

 but also in other counties ; in Suffolk it is called a bay. The 

 word "drey," though now provincial, I have met with in some 

 of our old writers. MITFORD. 



