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She tin* Hatched Oat over Fifty Chicken*, and Still Keeps it Up.• [New Vork Hu:u]A cat owned by Thomas Leonard, a SouthBrooklyn mason, and which is now fitting upon a nest of eggs, on Thursday afternoon batched out two chickens, making the twenty-first brood that she has hatched. The cat is a brindlc, and is about three __—11 t i _ l—i —_ _ if xt # i tiisince she has usurped the place or a hen she has refused the company of all other cate. About 4wo years ago the cat, which is christened Tibby, found a warm resting place in the nest of a setting hen, wheu the hen had gone to hunt fooil, and becameso fond of it that it refused to surrender it. lfcerc was a fight when , he hen returned and the cat was victorious, the hen retiring from the contest with one eye scratched out. The cat warmed the eggs every day faithfully, leaving the nest only for a meat, sud soon hatched out the ehicKens.From all of the twenty broods, numbering about fifty chiokens, the cat has raised about twenty-one. The maternal care, the animal exhibited for the chickens was a constant surprise. She followed with her eyes in the movements of every chick, and when it strayed too far she stepped softly after it, nicked it up by the back of the neck, and returned it to the company of the others. In her frolics she turned upon her back, took a chick between her paws and played with it. As soon os one brood of chickens was boro, she seemed restless until a new nest of eggs was provided for her. At the same time she kept an eye upon her last brood, which she warmed beneath herfur at uigot in the same nest with the eggs.The chickens recognized the cat as their mother, and when she left the cage in which she was kept,thev ran chirping after her. The cat defended them against Another cat, and especially against a hen. Uergrown up chickens Tibby never failed to recognize, and the memory of their feline mother did not 6eem to desert the pullets.She played with one of her chiokens until it was three or four months old, and always seemed to welcome it wheu it came where she was kept.In the hatching process she seems mo-rose until she hears the first peep or feels the first throb of life in the shell. Then she draws the quickened egg to a point in the nest where she can both warm and seeit, and if the chick in pecking its way through the shell, needs any assistance, she helps break its covering with her teeth. She hugs them about ber iu her nest, and if ene hops out she steps after it, bears it down witn her foot, grasps its neck care* fully between her teeth, and carries it back. The cat has been the source of considerable income to Leonard. It is now on exhibition in a museum.
Newspaper Details
Indianapolis News
Indianapolis, Indiana, US
Thu, Apr 14, 1881
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
UT, USA 27 Dec 2018
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