Faithful unto Death.—[Page 112]
LVII
MUSICAL SEALS
Seals have a very delicate sense of hearing, and are much delighted with music. A gentleman, in his account of a voyage to Spitzenbergen, tells us that the son of the ship's captain who was very fond of playing on the violin, never failed to have a large audience when in the seas frequented by these animals; and he has seen them follow the ship for miles when any person was playing on deck.
LVIII
A STRANGE FOSTER MOTHER
On an estate in Scotland a terrier had a litter of pups, which were at once taken away from her and drowned. The unfortunate mother was very unhappy, until, a few weeks later, she saw a brood of ducklings, which she seized and carried to her house, where she kept them, following them in and out with the greatest care, and nursing them after her own fashion, with the most affectionate anxiety. When the ducklings, following their natural instinct, went into the water, their foster-mother was terribly alarmed; and as soon as they came back to land, she quickly snatched them up in her mouth, and ran home with them. What is still more strange is, that the same animal, when her litter of pups were taken away the year before, seized two chicks, which she brought up with the same care she now bestowed upon the ducks. When the young cocks began to try their voices, their foster-mother was as much annoyed as she now was by the swimming of the duckings—and never failed to repress their attempts at crowing.