Richland beacon., 1877-03-17
ANIMAL CUNNING.

Danville (N. w. Advertiser: We
picked up a few local stories about
brides and beasties the other day which
we here and now put into history. =
Here is story which our veracious
deacon f. S. Palmes relates to us, and
which we are therefore bound to believe !:
About two years ago one of his trusted
hens Matched a brood of chickens, and
they were domiciled in a coop in the
garden. Close by, in an asparagus bed,
rested fine old cat, The pet of the
household, with some new kittens. One
of the kittens looked upon the chickens
and loved them-loved them 50 well that
il abandoned mother and brothers and
sisters, and went to the old hen and
asked to be admitted into her family
circle and become a member thereof.
Biddy clucked assent and thenceforward
hen. chickens and kitten mingled to-
gether in mutual sympathy and sweet
accord. 1t astonished the deacon, yet
did his heart good, to see chickens and
kitten rubbing against each other, and
lying close together, and his favorite hen
brooding them all with her wings, and
the entire family acting all day as If
kitty, in spite of her four claws and her
fur, had been Matched from an egg. The
curious utilization has been kept up until
this day. The kitty Of two years ago is
now a grave old cat, but from kittenhood
to the present it has lived and roasted
with the chickens and hens.
There are several witnesses to the
truth of another story. The afiliation
in this case was between a cat at the
Hyland house barn and four small pigs.
It commenced las summer and continued
for some weeks on the grounds and street
adjoining the .Hyland house. The cat
saw the pigs, went up to them, made
friends with them, and became their con-
slant companion until they were shut
up in pens. When they ate, the cat was
always present, and they followed it
about, running when it ran and walking
when it walked, and each night the cat
and pigs slept together in the straw.
Just after the last heavy fall of snow
man in West Sparta, while in his barn.
yard, feeding cattle, heard noise among
his geese, close by. He turned around
and saw a fox take one of them by the
neck, sling it over his back, and start
across the fields with it toward the Hart
man gully, aquarter of mile away. The
man chased him with pitchfork, but
the snow was so deep that the fox gained
on him. So he called his shepherd deg,
and showed him the game. The dog
quickly caught up with the fox, but the
fox dropped his goose, turned round,
whipped the dog, and then took up the
goose and trottsd on again. The dog
wasinduced to tackle the fox three or four
times, and each time the result was the
same as we have described-the goose was
dropped, the dog whipped, and then
forward movel ent with the goose. The
fox finally got sa ely into a gully with
his goose, and probably never had bet
ter opinion of himself than he had while
he was satisfying his hunger on the
choice meat that he had secured with so
much risk and courage.
About five weeks ago quail flew
into one of our village yards and was
picked up by kindly hand and given to
Thomas O'Meara, who put it in large
cage in his store. In the same room
were two canary birds in another cage.
The canaries would sing and the quail
would whistle in response, and 50 much
reciprocity of feeling was manifested that
after a time Mr.. O'Meara transferred
the canaries to the cage of the quail.
The quail received the songsters with evil
dent delight, and when night came, see
ing them place themselves on perch in
the top of the cage, it hoped to another
perch just below and slept there. This
it has done each night since, althoug
before, in accordance with quail Gus
toms the world over, its roost was the bot
! tom Of the cage.