,, s CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



veller." A friend of his, who was then going as master of a vessel to tho West Indies, took a liking 

 to her, Knd so she was given to him as a token of remembrance. Accordingly, she was carried from 

 Old Hi- ..... pt. MI, through London, put on board Mr. Whitley'x ship, performed the voyage, and returned 

 t.i tin- wharf whence she set out. And yet she had not forgotten the home where she had been 

 nourished, nor the haunts to which she had become attached ; for, as soon as she possibly could, she 

 e.scaped from the vessel, tracked her way through the intricate streets and lanes of the metropolis, and, 

 t.. the great surprise of the family, arrived in safety at her former residence. Other well-attested facts 

 are scarcely less singular. 



M. Antoine states, tliat in a cloister in France, where the meal-times were announced by the ring- 

 ing of a bell, a cat was regularly in attendance as soon as it was heard, that she, too, according to 

 custom, might be fed. One day it happened that she was shut up in a room by herself when the bell 

 rang, so that she was not able to reach the usual spot. Some hours after she was let out, when she 

 instantly ran to the place where she was accustomed to find her dinner, but there was none for her. In 

 the afternoon of the same day r the bell was heard ringing at an unusual time, when some of the inmates, 

 wishing to know the cause, found that the cat was clinging to the bell-rope. 



A friend of Gilbert White had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which the servants fed 

 with milk in a spoon, and about the same time his cat kittened, and the young were dispatched and 

 buried. The hare was soon lost, and supposed to be killed by some dog or cat. However, in about a 

 fortnight, as the master was sitting in his garden, in the dusk of the evening, he observed his cat, with 

 tail erect, trotting towards him, and calling with little, short, inward notes of complacency such as 

 they use towards their kittens while something was gamboling after him, which proved to be the 

 leveret, that the cat had sustained with her milk, and continued to support with great affection. 

 Captain Marryatt relates the following circumstances, which are still more curious : 

 " A little black spaniel had five puppies, which were considered too many for her to bring up. 

 As, however, the breed was much in request, her mistress was unwilling that any of them should be 

 destroyed, and she asked the cook whether she thought it would be possible to bring a portion of them 

 up by hand before the kitchen fire. In reply, the cook observed that the cat had that day kittened, 

 and that, perhaps, the puppies might be substituted. The cat made no objection, took to them kindly, 

 and, gradually, all the kittens were taken away, and the cat nursed the two puppies only. Now, the 

 first curious fact was, that the two puppies nursed by the cat were, in a fortnight, as active and playful 

 as kittens would have been ; they had the use of their legs, barked, and gamboled about ; while the 

 other three, nursed by the mother, were whining and rolling about like flat slugs. The cat gave them 

 her tail to play with, and they were always in motion : they soon ate. meat, and, long before the others, 

 they were fit to be removed. This was done, and the cat became very inconsolable. She prowled 

 about the house, and, on the second day of tribulation, fell in with the little spaniel who was nursing 

 the three other puppies. ' Oh ! ' says, Puss, putting up her back, ' it is you who have stolen my 

 children.' 'No,' replied the spaniel, with a snarl, 'they are my own flesh and blood !' 'That won't 

 do,' said the cat ; ' I'll take my oath before any justice of the peace that you have my two puppies.' 

 Thereupon issue was joined that is to say, there was a desperate combat, which ended in the defeat 

 if the spaniel, and in the cat walking off proudly with one of the puppies, which she took to her own 

 bed. Having deposited this one, she returned, fought again, gained another victory, and redeemed 



iinothpr puppy. Now, it is very singular that she should only have taken two, the exact number she 

 hud bren deprived of." 



Of strange attachments on the part of cats, reciprocated by very different animals, there are many 



The celebrated stallion, the Godolphin Arabian, and a black cat, for example, were, for 



v years, the warmest friends. When the horse died, the cat sat upon his carcase till it was put 



wind ; and then, crawling slowly and reluctantly away, was never seen again till her dead 



found in a hay-loft. Portraits of the Arabian and Cat were painted by Stubbs, who was 



, in his day, for pictures of animals. Some years ago there was a hunter in the royal stables 



l'i'-h a cat was so attached, that whenever he was in the stable she would never leave 



Hie horse's back, while he was so pleased with the attention, that, to accommodate 



(M h0WM will sometimes do) standing. This, however, was found to injure his health, 

 the cat was ,!,, . rcmovcd ^ - 



