178 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



able to feed without assistance. I caused her to be 

 educated ; and she was hardly fledged, when I re- 

 ceived from another place a nest of three or four 

 unfledged sky-larks. She took a strong liking to 

 these new-comers, which were scarcely younger than 

 herself; she attended them night and day, cherished 

 them beneath her wings, and fed them with her bill. 

 Nothing could interrupt her tender offices. If the 

 young ones were torn frqm her, she flew to them as 

 soon as, she was liberated, and would not think of 

 effecting, her own escape, which she might have done 

 a hundred times. Her affection grew upon her ; 

 she neglected food, and drink ;, she now required the 

 same support as her adopted offspring ; and expired 

 at last, consumed with maternal anxiety. None of 

 the young ones survived her. They died one after 

 another; so essential were her cares, which were 

 equally tender and judicious*." 



A more singular instance still is related by Mr. 

 Broderip. " On the 27th of April, 1820, I saw a 

 cat giving suck to five young rats and a kitten ; the 

 rats were about one-third grown. It was diverting 

 to observe the complacency with which the young 

 creatures sucked in the liberal stream, which the 

 teats of their foster-mother supplied ; and curious to 

 see the prey cherished by the milk of the destroyer. 

 The cat paid the same maternal attentions to the 

 young rats, in licking them and dressing their fur, 

 as she did to her kitten, notwithstanding the great 

 disparity of size. The man, who exhibited this phe- 

 nomenon in the Strand, near Essex-street, said, that 

 the cat had kittened fourteen days, and at that time 

 had three kittens at her teats, when he found this 

 nest of young rats, which seemed a few days old, 

 and turned them in at night to the cat for her prey ; 

 in the morning he found the kittens sharing the 

 * Oiseaux, Art. L'Alouette, 



