THE DOMESTIC CAT. 301 



the ceiling, where one died. — This circumstance 

 shewed her affection for these foundlings, and that 

 she supposed the Squirrels to be her own young*.'* 



Some years ago a sympathy of this nature took 

 place, in the house of Mr, James Greenfield of 

 Maryland, betwixt a Cat and a Rat. The Cat had 

 kittens, to which she frequently carried Mice and 

 other small animals for food; and among the rest 

 she is supposed to have carried to them a young Kat. 

 The kittens, probably not being hungry, played 

 with it ; and when the Cat gave suck to them, the 

 Rat likewise sucked her. This having been obscrv-^ 

 ed by some of the servants, Mr. Greenfield was in- 

 formed of it. He had the kittens and Rat brought 

 down stairs, and put on the floor ; and in carrying 

 them off, the Cat was remarked to convey away the 

 young Rat as tenderly as she did any of the kit- 

 tens. • This experiment was repeated as often as 

 any company came to the house, till great num.bers 

 had become eye-witnesses of the preternatural af- 

 fection 'j~. 



These incidents form no bad solution of that 

 strange circumstance, asserted by grave historians 

 as well as poets, of exposed children being some- 

 times nurtured by female wild beasts that probably 

 had lost their young. For it is no more marvel- 

 lous that Romulus and Renins, in their infant state, 

 ghould be nursed by a she Wolf; than that a 

 sucking Leveret, a set of young Squirrels, or a Rat^ 



* White's Naturalist's Calendar, 91, 95. 

 t Letter from Mr. Brooke ofMarykn-l, in Gent, Mag. xxii. 'JO?. 



