152 NATURAL HISTORY 
A ftill more remarkable mixture of fagacity and inftinft occurred 
tome one day as my people were pulling off the lining of an hotbed, 
in order to add fome freih dung. From out of the fide of this be4 
leaped an animal with great agility that made a moft grotefque 
figure ; nor was it without great difficulty that it could be taken 
when it proved to be a large white-bellied field-moufe with three or 
four young clinging to her teats by their mouths and feet. It was 
amazing that the defultory and rapid motions of this dam fhould 
not oblige her litter to quit their hold, efpecially when it appeared 
that they were fo young as to be both naked and blind ! 
To thefe inftances of tender attachment, many more of which 
might be daily difcovered by thofe that are ftudious of nature, may 
be oppofed that rage of afFeftion, that monftrous perverfion of the. 
cro^yri, which induces fome females of the brute creation to devour 
their young becaufe their owners have handled them too freely, or 
removed them from place to place ! Swine, and fometimes the more 
gentle race of dogs and cats, are guilty of this horrid and prepofterous 
murder. When I hear now and then of an abandoned mother that 
deftroys her offspring, I am not fo much amazed ; fince reafon per- 
verted, and the bad pailions let loofe, are capable of any enormity 
but why the parental feehngs of brutes, that ufually flow in one 
moil uniform tenor, fhould fometimes be fo extravagantly diverted^. 
1 leave to abler philofophers than myfelf to determine. 
I am, Scco. 
LETTER 
