Things went on very smoothly, the hen placidly sitting on her eggs, while
Mrs. Tabby came and went at will, spending at least half her time beside
her companion as friendly as though she were a sister cat.
Vainly did the hen sit, vainly did she turn her eggs. All the warmth in the
world would not have hatched a chick from the stale eggs beneath her.
Mrs. Tabby, however, had better luck. To the hen's amazement she found
beneath her very nose one morning five squirming furry little creatures
which might have been chicks but were not. Certainly they were young of
some sort, she reflected, and with true motherly instinct she lent her aid
to their proper bringing up.
The kittens thrived, but unfortunately, when still of tender age were
deprived, by death of their mother. All but one of her offspring found
comfortable homes elsewhere, and that one received the devoted attention of
the hen during the whole of that summer.
"To see it going between the house and barn clucking for the kitten," says
Dr. Beadner in _Our Animal Friends_, "was indeed a funny sight, and quite
as remarkable to see the kitten run to her when she made the peculiar call
that chickens understand means something to eat. At night and during the
resting hours of the daytime, kittie would crawl under the warm wings of
her foster mother; and the brooding hen and her nestling kitten were happy
and contented, little dreaming and caring less that they were so far from
being related to each other."
----
ONE AUDUBON SOCIETY.
----
FIVE hundred invitations were sent out for a novel reception by the
Wisconsin Audubon Society a while ago. One of the directors lent a large,
handsome house, and six milliners were invited to send hats unadorned with
aigrettes or birds. Ostrich plumes, quills and cock's-tails were not
disbarred. Twenty-five other milliners applied for space, "everybody" went,
and a great many tastefully trimmed hats were sold. People who had never
before heard of the Audubon Society became, through the newspaper reports
of the affair, greatly interested in its object, and the society itself
greatly encouraged through the fact that by their hats and bonnets many of
the "best" people of Milwaukee were ready to proclaim it no longer good
form to wear the plumes or bodies of wild birds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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