OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS 423 



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 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 fondlings, 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 her own chickens. 



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. 



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 haunted Hartley Wood for so 

 long a time. Many hundreds of people, horse and foot, 

 attended the dogs to see the deer unharboured ; but 

 though the huntsman drew Hartley Wood, and Long 



