402 OBSER V4 TIONS ON Q UA DRUPE DS. 



CAT AND SQUIRRELS. 



A boy has taken three 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 hare 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 their own chickens. WHITE. 



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. WHITE. 



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 un- 

 harboured; but though the huntsmen drew Hartley Wood and 



* Mitford observes, " Drey is not peculiar to Hampshire only, and in Suffolk they call it 

 a bay." Mr. Herbert observes that " in the north of Hampshire, a great portion of the 

 squirrels have white tails." It is said that 20,000 squirrels are annually sold in London. 



