240 THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN. 



a pet canary bird, and one day as she was clean- 

 ing its cage, she was called out of the room, and 

 left the cage on the parlour floor ; on her return, 

 she discovered the cat in the act of killing the bird, 

 and in her anger on the occasion, she pursued the 

 cat round the room with the hearth brush in her 

 hand, with which she endeavoured to chastise it. 

 After striking at it two or three times, the cat fell 

 down to all appearance dead. Knowing her hus- 

 band's partiality for it, her anger immediately sub- 

 sided, and taking the cat up in her arms, she car- 

 ried it to Dr. Hastings, and imformed him of what 

 had taken place, assuring him at the same time, 

 that she had not struck the cat. After deploring 

 his loss, and reproaching his wife as the cause of it, 

 the cat was deposited on the rug, and Mrs. Has- 

 tings said in an affectionate tone of voice, ' well, 

 poor puss, I am sorry for you, although you did 

 kill mv bird.' On hearing this, the cat jumped up, 

 erected her tail, and shewed every sympton of satis- 

 faction. There can be no doubt, but that she put 

 on a semblance of death to escape a beating, which 

 she was perhaps sensible that she deserved for mis- 

 conduct in killing the bird. This fact may be 

 thought extraordinary, but both quadrupeds, birds, 

 and even some insects have been known to put on 

 this semblance of death to preserve their lives, thus 

 evincing a faculty nearly allied to reason. The 

 hedgehog, and the land-rail, the snake, and the 



