238 RABBITS, CATS, AND CAVIES 



Innumerable instances are recorded of this kind, 



In White's Natural History of Selborne, the author 

 says : 



" My friend had a little helpless leveret (young hare) 

 brought to him, which the servants fed with milk in a 

 spoon, and about the same time his cat kittened, and the 

 young were despatched and buried. The young hare 

 disappeared and was supposed to be gone the way of most 

 foundlings, killed by some dog or cat. 



" However, in about a fortnight, as the owner was 

 sitting in his garden in the dusk of the evening, he 

 observed the cat, with tail erect, trotting towards him and 

 calling with little short notes of complacency, such as 

 they use towards their kittens, and something gambolling 

 after, which proved to be the leveret that the cat had 

 supported with her milk and continued to nourish with 

 great affection." In the notes to a late edition of same 

 work, instances are given of cats transferring their atten- 

 tions in rearing, and tending two young ducklings, a 

 young lark, etc. 



Mr Brodrip mentions the singular circumstance of a 

 cat that had been deprived of its young adopting and 

 nursing the young progeny of a rat. 



The following is given on undoubted authority from 

 a work already quoted : 



<c A cat and bitch belonging to a lady chanced to have 

 young at the same time. The cat not liking the place 

 assigned to her for her kittens, carried them, without 

 having been noticed to do so, into a drawer containing 

 clothes, etc., which was soon afterwards pushed in and the 



