298 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



will show : l A person having missed one of his goats 

 when the flock returned at night, desired two boys to 

 watch all night, that she should not get into his young 

 plantation, and nibble off the tops of the trees. At 

 daybreak the watchers looked for the missing animal, 

 and saw her on a pointed rock at some distance. Dur- 

 ing the night she had given birth to a kid, and was then 

 defending it from a fox. The latter went round and 

 round, but she turned her horns upon him in all direc- 

 tions. The younger boy went to procure assistance, 

 and the elder holloaed and threw stones to frighten 

 away the marauder. Reynard looked at him, saw he 

 was not strong enough to master him, and suddenly 

 tried to seize the kid. All three disappeared, and were 

 found at the bottom of a precipice. The goat's horns 

 were stuck into the fox ; the kid lay stretched beside 

 her, with a lacerated throat ; and it was supposed, when 

 the death-wound was inflicted by the poor mother, the 

 fox staggered and dragged her and her child with him in 

 his fall.' (Capt. Brown's Popular Natural History.) 



A goat and her kids frequented a square in which I 

 once lived, and were often fed by myself and servants ; 

 a circumstance which would have made no impression, 

 had I not heard a thumping at the hall door, which 

 arose from the buttings of the goat when the food was 

 not forthcoming, and whose example was followed by 

 the two little things. After a time this remained un- 

 heeded ; and to our great astonishment, one day the area 

 bell used by the tradespeople, and the wire of which 

 passed by the side of one of the railings, was sounded. 

 The cook answered it, but no one was there save the 

 goat and kids, with their heads bent down towards the 

 kitchen window. It was thought that some boy had 



