A ftill more remarkable mixture of fagacity and inftinft occurred!
to me one day as my people were pulling off the lining of an hotbed,,
in order to. add fome frefli dung. From out of the fide of this bed
Leaped an animal- with- great agility that made a molt 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 told, efpecially when, it appeared,
that they.were fo young as to be both naked and blind !
T o thefe inftances of tender attachment, many more o f whichi
might be daily difcovered by thofe that are ftudious of nature, may
- be oppofed that rage of affection, that monftrous perverfion of the
FTogyn, which induces fome females of the brute creation to devour
their young becaufe their owners have handled them too freely, or
Temoved 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 pfan-abandoned mother that-
deftroys- her offsprings I am not fo much amazed ; fince reafon per- -
verted, and the bad paffions let loofe, are capable of any enormity:.
but why the parental feelings of brutes, that ufually flow in one-
moft uniform tenor, fhould fometimes be fo extravagantly diverted,,
I, leave to abler philofophers than myfelf to determine.
I am, &c..
L E T T E R '
L E T T E R X V .
TO T H E S AM E .
D E A R SIR, Selbos.se , July8, , 7yj.
S o m e young men went down lately to a pond on the verge of
Wolmer-forejl to hunt flappers, or young wild-ducks, many of which
they caught, and, among the reft, fome very minute yet well-fledged
wild-fowls alive, which upon examination I found to be teals. I
did not know till then that teals ever bred in the fouth of England,
and was much pleafed with the difcovery: this I look upon as a
great ftroke in natural lriftory.
We have had, ever fince I can remember, a pair o f white owls
that conftantly breed under the eaves of tins church. As I have
paid good attention to the manner of life of thefe birds during
their feafon of breeding, which lafts the fummer through, the
following remarks may not perhaps be unacceptable:— About an
hour before funfet (for then the mice begin to run) they fally
forth in queft of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows
and final! enclofures for them, which feem to be their only food.
In this irregular country we can ftand on an eminence and fee
them beat the fields over like a fetting-dog, and often drop down
in the grafs or com.. I have minuted thefe birds with my watch
for an hour together, and have found that they return to their
Belt, the one or the other of them, about once in five minutes;
reflecting at the fame time on the adroitnefs that every animal
is poffeffed of as far as regards the well being of itfelf and off