The natural history of Selborne . ir nat-ural weapons, and of using them properly in theirown defence, even before those weapons subsist orare formed. Thus a young cock will spar at hisadversary before his spurs are grown, and a calfor lamb will push with their heads before their horns 240 NATURAL HISTORY are sprouted. In the same manner did theseyoung adders attempt to bite before their fangswere in being. The dam, however, was furnishedwith very formidable ones, which we lifted up(for they fold down when not used), and cut themoff with our scissors. LETTER XXX. Selborne, May 9, 1776. Dear Si
The natural history of Selborne . ir nat-ural weapons, and of using them properly in theirown defence, even before those weapons subsist orare formed. Thus a young cock will spar at hisadversary before his spurs are grown, and a calfor lamb will push with their heads before their horns 240 NATURAL HISTORY are sprouted. In the same manner did theseyoung adders attempt to bite before their fangswere in being. The dam, however, was furnishedwith very formidable ones, which we lifted up(for they fold down when not used), and cut themoff with our scissors. LETTER XXX. Selborne, May 9, 1776. Dear Sir,— Admorunt ubera tigres. We have remarked in a former letter how muchincongruous animals, in a lonely state, may be at-tached to each other from a spirit of sociality; iathis it may not be amiss to recount a differeat mo-tive, which has been known to create as strange afondness. My friend had a little helpless leveret brought tohim, which the servants fed with milk in a spoon,and about the same time his Cat had kittens, which. OF SELBORNE. 241 were despatched and buried. The hare was soonlost, and supposed to be gone the way of mostfoundlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. , in about a fortnight, as the master was sittingin his garden in the dusk of evening, he observedhis cat, with tail erect, trotting towards him, andcalling with little, short, inward notes of compla-cency, such as they use towards their kittens, andsomething gambolling after, which proved to be theleveret that the cat had supported with her milk,and continued to support with great affection. Thus was a graminivorous animal nurtured by acarnivorous and predaceous one ! Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat,of the ferocious genus oi fells, the murium ho, asLinnseus calls it, should be affected with any ten-derness towards an animal which is its natural prey,is not so easy to determine. This strange affection probably was occasionedby that desiderium, those tender maternal feelings,which t
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