VAGRANT ANIMALS, 259 
brutes in the yard. They devoured all kinds 
of food: vegetables, boiled rice, hominy, meat 
both raw and boiled, and the scraps thrown 
from the kitchen; giving the preference to 
those that contained any fatty substance. 
On one’ occasion a brood of young with their 
mother made their escape, concealed themselves 
under a stable, and became partially wild; they 
were in the habit of coming out at night, and 
eating scraps of food, but we never discovered 
that they committed any depredations on the 
poultry or pigeons. They appeared, however, 
- to have effectually driven off the rats, as during 
the whole time they were occupants of the sta- 
ble we did not observe a single rat on the prem- 
ises. It was ascertained that they were in 
the habit of clambering over fences and visiting 
the neighbouring lots and gardens, and we 
occasionally found that we had repurchased 
one of our own vagrant animals. They 
usually, however, returned towards daylight 
to their snug retreat, and we believe would 
have continued in the neighbourhood and 
multiplied the species, had they not in their 
nightly prowlings been detected and destroyed 
by the neighbouring dogs. 
