318 
OBSERVATIONS OF 
CAT AND SQUIRRELS. 
A BOY has taken three little young squirrels in their nest, 
or drey as it is 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 off- 
spring. This circumstance corroborates my suspicion^, that 
the mention of exposed and deserted children being nur- 
tured by female beasts of prey who 'had lost their young, 
may not be so improbable an incident as many have sup- 
CAT. 
posed j 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 foundlings, and that she supposes 
the ^uirrels to be her own young. Thus hens, when they 
have hatched ducklings, are equally attached to them as if 
they were their own chickens. 
