284 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 



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 nur- 

 tured 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 fondlings, 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.* 



HOUNDS. The king's stag hounds came down to Alton, 

 attended by a huntsman and six yeoman prickers, with horns, 

 to try for the stag that has haunted Harteley Wood for so 

 long a time. Many hundreds of people, horse and foot, 

 attended the dogs to see the deer unharboured ; but though 

 the huntsman drew Harteley Wood, and Long Coppice, and 

 Shrubwood, and Temple Hangers, and, in their way back, 

 Harteley and Ward-le-ham Hangers, yet no stag could be 

 found. 



* The Rev. Mr Bree says, " Some years ago, a quantity of peat soil was 

 thrown down in a heap, in the corner of a small field adjoining my house, 

 for the purpose of being used in the garden as occasion required. A horse 

 that was turned out into the same field (which I may observe afforded a 

 good pasture) was in the frequent habit of going to this heap of peat 

 soil, and feeding upon it with as much apparent satisfaction as if it had 

 been a rick of good hay. A pointer dog, also, which was usually kept 

 tied up, on being let loose, would almost invariably go to the heap of soil, 

 and devour lumps of it with avidity." ED. 



