FRIENDSHIP IN ANIMALS 75 



was tliat it was a very strange story, that the experience 

 of my Buenus Ayres friend was absolutely unic^ue — for 

 who would have imagined that any other person in the 

 world had found a loved and affectionate pet in a teal, 

 which he had himself shot with the intention of eating 

 it? But I soon received a letter from a gentleman re- 

 siding in South Kensington who said he had read the 

 incident of the teal with astonishment, that it had ap- 

 peared to him just as if I had taken an incident which 

 occurred in South Africa, transferred it to South 

 America, and slightly altering the circumstances related 

 the first half of the story. My informant had been 

 out to The Cape, and while there went to stay with a 

 friend on his estate. His friend told him that one day 

 when out shooting he winged a teal and on picking it 

 up experienced so strong a pang of compassion for it 

 that he took it home and set to work to bind up the 

 wound, intending if the bird recovered the use of its 

 wings to restore it to liberty. In a little while the 

 teal became attached to him, precisely as in the case 

 I had described, and would trot about after him all 

 over the place just like a little dog. Eventually, when 

 pairing time came round again the teal flew away to 

 the marshes, for it had recovered the full use of its 

 wings, and he never expected to see or at all events to 

 recognize his quacking little friend again. One day 

 when out shooting he had his eye on a bunch of teal 

 flying past at a considerable distance when all at once 

 one of the birds detached itself from the flock and came 

 swiftly towards him and pitched at his very feet! It 



