as  they  use  towards  their  kittens,  and  something
gamboling  after,  which  proved  to  be  the  leveret,  that
the  cat  had  supported  with  her  milk,  and  continued ,
to  support  with  great  affection."

Sir  William  Jardine  adds,  "  About  two  years  since
at  a  cotter's  house  in  Annandale,  Dumfries-shire,  a
litter  of  pigs  by  some  accident  lost  their  mother ;  at
the  same  time,  a  pointer  bitch  happening  to  pup,
and  the  puppies  suffering  the  lot  common  to  most
such,  their  place  was  supplied  by  the  pigs,  which
were  well  and  affectionately  nursed  by  their  foster
parent*."  A  similar  anecdote  has  been  recorded  of
a  cat  suckling  puppies  f.
It  is  not  improbable  that  some  such  incidents  as
these  gave  rise  to  the  relations  of  exposed  children
being  suckled  by  wild  beasts,  such  as  the  celebrated
Roman  story  of  the  twin  brothers,  Romulus  and
Remus,  alleged  to  have  been  suckled  by  a  wolf.
The  cave  of  Mars  was  dressed  with  mossy  greens ;
There,  by  the  wolf,  was  laid  the  martial  twins  :
Intrepid  on  her  swelling  dugs  they  hung-,
The  foster  dam  loll'd  out  her  fawning  tongue —
They  suck'd  secure>  while  bending  back  her  head
She  lick'd  their  tender  limbs;};.
To  return  to  the  accounts  of  chickens  nursed  by
cocks.  "  I  have  had  repeated  opportunities,"  says
Re'aumur,  "  of  convincing  myself  with  my  own  eyes
that  capons  perform  the  office  of  a  mother  very  well.
*  White's  Selborne,  Sir  W.  Jardine's  edit.  p.  231.
•t*  See  Menageries,  i.  215.
J  Dryden's  Virgil.    The  original  is  :

Viridi  foetam  Mavortis  in  antro

Procubuisse  lupam  ;  geminos  huic  ubera  circum
Ludere  pendentes  pueros,  et  lambere  matrem
Impavidos ;  illam  tereti  cervice  reflexatn
Mulcere  alternos. — dEneid,  viii.
