IH2 SINGULAR INCUBATION. 



evinced towards her was duly reciprocated. His fate was 

 sad ; for one fine day the kitchen-maid, mistaking him 

 for another, chopped off his head !" 



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

 limes 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- 

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

 taining nine eggs, which Fiildin carried home, for tin- 

 purpose of placing tbem under a hen. On his arrival 

 there, however, and whilst making 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 duckling were hatched, when Mrs. Fiildin thought 

 it most prudent to separate the otherwise well-behaved 

 cat from her young step-children ; who, nevertheless, 

 were allowed to remain with their four-footed foster 

 brethren. The following day .Mrs. Fiildin's sensible and 

 motherly care was crowned \\ith 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 2!)th, a seventh egg was 

 also vivified, the remaining t \\ o proving rotten. 



"During Ihe space of near a \\eek Mrs. Fiildin v\as 

 1'ortmiale enough to retain all the seven alive. They 

 drank milk like the kittens, and swam and disported 

 themselves in a till) of water placed at hand for the 

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



