68 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 



family are at meals, the old cat, who has been 

 accustomed to be fed from the table, is exceed- 

 ingly jealous when the kitten approaches her at 

 such times: she is apprehensive lest the attentions 

 of the party should be diverted from herself to 

 the kitten; and, if the latter attempt to take any 

 of the food which she conceives intended for her- 

 self, she growls, and ' flies at her offspring in the 

 most savage manner. This has nothing to do with 

 any feelings of hunger, for she is often manifestly 

 hungry when she has caught a mouse, but which, 

 notwithstanding, she gives up to the kitten. 



I observe that in summer, when my cat is prowl- 

 ing about the garden, and appears upon the lawn, 

 water-wagtails often come and alight near her, and 

 keep running about within a short distance of where 

 she is, chirping all the time incessantly. Sometimes 

 they suddenly take wing, but seldom fly above a few 

 yards, settling again almost immediately at the same 

 distance as before. The cat during the interval re- 

 mains crouched upon the ground, eyeing the wag- 

 tail, but not attempting to spring at it, as if con- 

 scious that it was not within her reach. This conti- 

 nues for a longer or shorter time, when one or the 

 other moves further off, and the matter ends. We 

 can well understand that the wagtail would take care 

 not to approach sufficiently near the cat to be seiz- 

 ed ; but why it does not at once fly away at the 

 sight of its enemy, which evidently inspires it with 

 fear, and thus put itself beyond all danger, is not so 

 easily to be accounted for. It would seem like one 



