OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS 333 



CATS AND SQUIRRELS. 



A boy has taken three 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 

 nurtured 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 mapy 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 

 shows her affection for these fondlings, and that she 

 supposes the squirrels to be her own young. Thus henSj 

 when they have hatched ducklings, are equally attached to 

 them as if they were their own chickens. — White. 



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. — White. 



HOUNDS. 



The king's stag-hounds came down to Alton, attended by 

 a huntsman and six yeomen prickers, with horns, to try for 

 the stag that has haunted Hartley Wood for so long a 



