82 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



How can we explain it ? The swan, we have seen, 

 was in a state of misery at his isolation and doubtless 

 ready to attach himself to and find a solace in the 

 company of any living creature on land or in the 

 water, and a fish happened to be the only creature 

 there. But how about the trout ? I can only suppose 

 that he got some profit out of the partnership, that 

 the swan when feeding by the margin accidentally 

 fed the trout by shaking small insects into the water, 

 and that in this way the swan became associated with 

 food in what we are pleased to call the trout's mind. 

 The biologist denies that it — the poor fish — has a mind 

 at all, since it has no cortex to its brain, but we need 

 not trouble ourselves with this question just now. 

 I also think it possible that the swan may have 

 touched or stroked the back of his strange friend with 

 his beak, just as one swan would caress another swan, 

 and that this contact was grateful to the trout. Fish 

 have as much delight in being gently stroked as other 

 creatures that wear a skin or scales. I have picked 

 up many "wild worms in woods" and many a wild 

 toad, if wild toads there be, and have quickly over- 

 come their wildness and made them contented to be 

 in my hands by gently stroking them on the back. 



The sequel remains to be told. There came to the 

 Hall a visitor from London, who being a keen angler 

 got up very early in the morning and went to the 

 lake to try and get a trout for breakfast. About eight 

 o'clock he returned and finding his hostess down 

 proudly exhibited to her a magnificent trout he had 

 caught. He had not looked for such a big one, and 



