ir
wants. Sometimes she will even drive them away from her.

Another feature of this parental love is what might almost be called its
unthinking strength. The mother animal feels her affections so strong
that she cannot restrain them, and she often bestows them upon the
strangest animals, along with her own young ones, or when she has been
deprived of her own offspring. A hen will hatch ducks' eggs, and take
the same care of the ducklings which she would have taken of her own
chickens. I have heard of a hen taking charge of three young ferrets for
a fortnight. They were placed in her nest because their own mother had
died, and she took to them at once, and nestled down over them just as
if they had been chickens. They were too helpless to follow her about,
as chickens would have done, and she had to sit with them almost the
whole time. She combed out their hair with her bill, just as she would
have preened the feathers of chickens. The ferrets were fed by their
owner, and they were taken away from the nest before they were old
enough to do the hen any harm.

An even stranger instance of this misplaced affection on the part of a
parent has been seen at a railway station recently, according to the
newspapers. A cat in the goods shed had three kittens, which she was
bringing up in the usual way. Soon after the kittens were born, some of
the railwaymen found a young jackdaw, and put it with them. The cat made
no objection, but received the bird kindly, and gave just as much care
to it as to the kittens. The workmen fed the bird, while the cat took
every other care of it, and even washed it, in its turn, with the
kittens. The rearing was quite successful, and the bird grew up strong
and healthy.

W. A. ATKINSON.

A QUEER ADDRESS ON A POST-CARD.

On Coronation Day (August 9th, 1902), a number of balloons filled with
natural gas were sent off from Heathfield, near Tunbridge Wells. One of
these balloons was picked up on August 10th at Ulm, in Germany, having
travelled the six hundred miles in less than twenty-four hours.

Notice of this fact was sent in German by the finder on a post-card, but
he evidently did not understand English, for he copied the wording on
the little medal fastened to the balloon: '_Natural gas carried me from
Heathfield, Sussex._'

With these words for address, the post-card, after some delay, reached
Heathfield, and was delivered to the manager of the Natural Gas Works.

S. CLARENDON.