A WOOD BY THE SEA 63 



together; that when I first spied the pheasant, 

 standing in that listless attitude after all his fellows 

 had gone, he was waiting for his little black comrade 

 and would not have his supper without him. 



It was getting dark when the blackbird at length 

 flew off to the wood, and at once the pheasant, with 

 head up, began walking in the same direction; then 

 running and soon launching himself on the air he flew 

 straight into the pines. 



My experience is that friendships between bird and 

 bird, if the preference of two individuals for each 

 other's company can be described by that word, is 

 not at all uncommon, though I usually find that 

 gamekeepers "don't quite seem to see it." That is 

 only natural in their case; it is but a reflex effect 

 of the gun in the hand on the keeper's mind. Yet one 

 of the keepers on the estate, to whom I related this 

 incident, although inclined to shake his head, told 

 me he had observed a ringed dotterel and a redshank 

 keeping company for a space of two or three months 

 last year. It was impossible not to see, he said, what 

 close friends they were, as they invariably went 

 together even when feeding with other shore birds. 

 It is a thing we notice sometimes when the companion- 

 ship is between two birds of different species, but it is 

 probable that it is far more common among those 

 of the same species, and that among the gregarious 

 and social kinds the unmated ones as a rule have 

 their chums in the flock. 



The friendship I observed between the two birds 

 at Wells reminded me of the case of a pheasant who 



