204 CHILDREN SUCKLED BY WILD BEASTS. 



Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the ferocious 

 genus offelis, the murium leo,*>&s Linnaeus calls it, should be 

 affected with any tenderness towards an animal which is its 

 natural prey, is not so easy to determine. * 



This strange affection probably was occasioned by that 

 desiderium, those tender maternal feelings, which the loss of 

 her kittens had awakened in her breast ; and by the compla- 

 cency and ease she derived to herself from procuring her teats 

 to be drawn, which were too much distended with milk ; till, 

 from habit, she became as much delighted with this foundling, 

 as if it had been her real offspring. 



This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance 

 which grave historians, as well as the poets, assert, of exposed 

 children being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that 

 probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit more 

 marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, 

 should be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor little sucking 

 leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin : 



Viridi fcetam Mavortis in antro 



Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum 

 Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 

 Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam 

 Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua. 



in Exeter Change, had, for some years, within one cage, the snake called 

 the hooded snake, cobra di capello, and a canary bird ; they appeared 

 most affectionately attached to each other. ED. 



* A cat, belonging to a person in Taunton, in May, 1822, having lost 

 her kittens, transferred her affection to two ducklings, which were kept 

 in the yard'adjoining. She led them out every day to feed ; seemed quite 

 pleased to see them eat; returned with them to their usual nest, and 

 evinced for them as much attachment as she could have shewn to her lost 

 young ones. 



The following is a still more extraordinary proof of the kindly feelings 

 of the cat: A short time ago, a young girl, daughter of Mr John Ander- 

 son, farmer at Collin, on the road to Annan, brought home early one 

 morning two fine larks, which she had taken from the nest in a neigh- 

 bouring field. Soon afterwards, the girl discovered that one of the 

 larks had been taken out of the cage, and, on searching for it, found that 

 the cat, whose only kitten died a day or two before, had carried the bird 

 to the place where she usually nurtured her offspring, and was trying 

 every method to make it suckle her ; and when the lark attempted to 

 get away, she still detained it, evincing the utmost anxiety for its safety. 

 The girl, however, caught the bird, and placed it in the cage, which she 

 hung in a situation beyond the reach of the cat. A few days after, several 

 more birds were brought to the house, one of which the persevering cat 

 also stole, and again tried, by all the endearing acts in her power, to 

 make this likewise accept of her nourishment. Neither of the birds 

 suffered the least injury from the animal. ED. 



