286 OBSERVATIONS OX QUADRUPEDS. 



warrens produce much the most delicate turf for gardens. Sheep never 

 touch the stalks of grasses. WHITE. 



CAT AND SQUIRRELS. 



A boy has taken three young squirrels in their nest or drey* as it ia 

 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 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 shows 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 

 her 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 time. Many hundreds of 

 people, horse and foot, attended the dogs to see the deer unharboured ; 

 but though the huntsman drew Hartley Wood, and Long Coppice, and 

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

 Wardle-ham Hangers , yet no stag could be found. 



The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out before 

 them, never drew the coverts with any address and spirit, as many 

 people that were present observed ; and this remark the event has 

 proved to be a true one. For as a person was lately pursuing a 

 pheasant that was wing-broken in Hartley Wood, he stumbled upon the 

 stag by accident, and ran in upon him as he lay concealed amidst a 

 thick brake of brambles and bushes. WHITE. 



* Mitford observes "Drey is not peculiar to Hampshire only, and in Suffolk 

 they call it a Bay." Mr. Herbert observes that "in the north of Hampshire, a 

 great portion of the squirrels have white tails." It is said that 20,000 squirrels 

 are annually sold in London. 



