352 WHITE 



load of hay, and when discovered feigned to be dead. It was laid aside, 

 and recovered so quickly, that it made good its escape with remarkable 

 speed. G. C. D. 



4 The goat-sucker, like other birds, finds insects in attendance on cattle ; 

 hence its apparent "striking at them." Magpies and starlings will coolly 

 perch on the backs of animals and leisurely make their meal. G. C. D. 



OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS 



SHEEP. The sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are 

 very ragged, and their coats much torn ; the shepherds say 

 they tear their fleeces with their own mouths and horns, and 

 they are always in that way in mild wet winters, being teased 

 and tickled with a kind of lice. 



After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion 

 and bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to 

 distinguish one another as before. This embarrassment seems 

 not so much to arise from the loss of the fleece, which may 

 occasion an alteration in their appearance, as from the defect 

 of that notus odor, discriminating each individual personally ; 

 which also is confounded by the strong scent of pitch and tar 

 wherewith they are newly marked ; for the brute creation recog- 

 nize each other more from the smell than the sight ; and in 

 matters of identity and diversity appeal much more to their 

 noses than their eyes. After sheep have been washed there 

 is the same confusion, from the reason given above. WHITE. 



RABBITS. Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for 

 they not only bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they 

 allow no bents to rise ; 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 squir- 

 rels 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 



