334 OBSERVATIONS ON 



are newly marked ; for the brute creation recognize each other 

 more from the smell than the sight ; and in matters of identity 

 and diversity appeal much more to their noses than to their eyes. 

 After sheep have been washed there is the same confusion, from 

 the reason given above. 



RABBITS. 



Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not only 

 bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents to 

 rise ; hence warrens produce much the most delicate turf for 

 gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses. 



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 shews her affection for these found- 

 lings, 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. 



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. 



