66 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



best and highest qualities have their small beginnings 

 in these lowlier beings. That union or feeling of 

 preference and attachment of an individual towards 

 another of its own or of a different species, which I 

 first began to observe in horses during my boyhood, 

 is, like play, unconcerned with the satisfaction of 

 bodily wants and the business of self-preservation 

 and the continuance of the race. It is a manifestation 

 of something higher in the mind, which shows that 

 the lower animals are not wholly immersed in the 

 struggle for existence, that they are capable in a 

 small way, as we are in a large way, of escaping 

 from and rising above it. Friendship is in fact the 

 highest point to which the animal's mind can rise. 

 For whereas play, which has its origin in the purely 

 physical state of well-being and in instinctive impulses 

 universal among sentient beings, does indirectly serve 

 a purpose in the animal's life, friendship can serve no 

 useful purpose whatever and is the isolated act of an 

 individual which clearly shows a perception on his 

 part of differences in the character of other individuals, 

 also the will and power to choose from among them 

 the one with which he finds himself most in harmony. 

 Furthermore, such friendships do not come into 

 existence inevitably, or automatically, as the result 

 of a feeling on the part of an individual: the feeling 

 must be expressed or exhibited and approaches made. 

 These may or may not be accepted, since the animal 

 approached has a will of his own. The result is some- 

 times a very one-sided friendship, as in the case of 

 an individual who forms an attachment for another 



