SOQ THE DOMESTIC cAT. 



History of Selborne) had a little helpless Leveret 

 brought to him, which the servants fed with milk 

 from a spoon ; and about the same time his Cat kit- 

 tened, and the young were dispatched and buried* 

 The Hare was soon lost ; and was supposed to have 

 been killed by som.e 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 these animals use towards their kittens ; and 

 something gamboling after her, which proved to be 

 the Leveret, that the Cat had nourished with her 

 milk, and continued to support with great affection. 

 Thus was a granivorous animal nurtured by a carni- 

 verous and predacious one ! — This strange affection 

 was probably occasioned by those tender maternal 

 feelings, which the loss of her kittens had awakened ; 

 and by the complacency and ease she derived from 

 the procuring of her teats to be drawn, which were 

 too much distended with milk. From habit, she 

 became as much delighted with this foundling as if 

 it had been real offspring." 



" A boy (says the same gentleman) had taken 

 three young Squirrels in their nest. These small 

 creatures he put under a Cat who had lately lost her 

 kittens; and found that she nursed and suckled them 

 with the same assiduity and affection as if they had 

 been her own progeny. — So many persons 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 liid them over 



