FRIENDSHIP IN ANIMALS 67 



of an individual: the tcclinj; must be expressed or ex- 

 hibited and approaches made. These may or may not 

 be accepted, since tlie animal approached has a will of 

 his own. The result is sometimes a very one-sided 

 friendship, as in the case of an individual who forms an 

 attachment for another which is like an infatuation, 

 and who is happy if his presence is tolerated and who 

 will go on day after day for weeks and months follow- 

 ing the indifferent one about. In other cases the ad- 

 vances are resented, and if persisted in will develop a 

 quite savage animosity in their object, resulting in bites 

 and kicks or blows with whatever weapon Nature may 

 have endowed the species. 



All these actions may be easily observed in our 

 domestic animals and are common enough, although 

 probably not nearly so common in England as in the 

 pastoral countries where the animals are not housed and 

 fed but are allowed to lead a semi-independent life. I 

 have said that I first observed friendship in horses. We 

 usually kept fifteen or twenty, and as the country was 

 all open then, our horses did sometimes take advantage 

 of their liberty to clear out altogether; as a rule they 

 kept to their own grazing ground within a mile or so 

 of home, and when a fresh horse or horses were wanted 

 some one was sent to drive the troop in. As a boy 

 who wanted to spend at least half of every day on 

 horseback I went after the troop very often and grew 

 to be very familiar with their little ways. There were 

 always horses in the troop that w^ent in couples, and 

 who were chums, and inseparable. After one of a couple 



