733 General Notes. [September, 



rising with laborious flight and concluded it was wounded and ex- 

 pected to see it fall. (It is not uncommon for birds shot through 

 the heart to rise quite high in the air and then suddenly drop 

 dead.) When up about a rod high the bird turned and flew near 

 me. My attention was called to something it seemed to be hold- 

 ing between its feet, and so heavy that its flight was slow and 

 clumsy like that of a rapacious bird with heavy prey. By close 

 observation I was convinced that the bird was transporting its 

 young, as I could distinctly see the little fellow (about the size of 

 a young chicken just hatched), located between its mother's legs 

 and supported by her feet placed on its sides. I became so in- 

 terested in watching this habit, entirely novel to me, that I forgot 

 to fire the other barrel until the bird was out of range, and then I 

 felt that a bird showing such love of offspring ought to go free. 

 So slow was the flight that by taking a brisk trot I was able to 

 gain on the bird, and tried to tire it out and make it drop its 

 precious burden, but its pluck was greater than my wind. After 

 chasing it forty rods or more it started across a cultivated field 

 and kept wing until reaching the other side, when it disappeared 

 in a clump of bushes over one hundred rods from the place it 



* It seems rather early for woodcock to hatch, but in this region 

 where the winters are open woodcock and Wilson's snipe both re- 

 main. I shot a specimen of the former this spring in February and 

 fifteen of the latter about the middle of January. — F. L. Harvey, 

 Ark. hid. Univ., Fayetteville, Ark. 



Feline Development.— It seems to me from the many articles 

 I meet with in scientific journals, as well as in the general press, and 

 from my own observations, too, that the cat family are constantly 

 growing in the general estimation in the high qualities of sagac- 

 ity and affection. In fact, I believe, they stand better than they 

 did forty years ago — all the objurgations of Mrs. Swisshelm, 

 the champion cat-hater, to the contrary notwithstanding. Here 

 is our " Nig," for instance, manifesting a trait altogether new, as 

 it seems to me— in this : he likes to ride as well as a coach dog. 

 He cries almost every day to ride to town in the buggy, and is 

 always ready to go out with the team when we are hauling in 

 hay or grain or husking corn, provided he can ride. If one will 

 hold him in his arms he also delights to ride on horseback. His 

 pleasure is manifested in a remarkable degree whenever he is al- 

 lowed the luxury of a ride, either in any kind of vehicle or on. 

 horseback, and his cries are altogether pitiful when he is told that 

 he cannot go. This singular habit seems to have been a natural 

 one with him, for he never had any special training in that direc- 

 tion. While cats are ordinarily frightened out of their wits by 

 any attempt to give them such a ride, our " Nig " is never so 

 happy as when he is thus indulged. He evidently reasons that 



