FRIENDSHIP IN ANIMALS 77 



forward and dropping down in or a little in advance 

 of the front line. It is a pretty spectacle, one I was 

 never tired of seeing. One day I was sitting on my 

 horse watching a tlock feeding and travelling in their 

 leisurely manner when I noticed a little distance behind 

 the others a bird sitting motionless on the ground and 

 two others keeping close to it, one on each side. These 

 two had finished examining the ground and prodding 

 at the roots of the grass at the spot, and were now 

 anxious to go forward and rejoin the company, but 

 were held back by the other one. On my going to them 

 they all flew up and on, and I then saw that the one 

 that had hung back had a broken leg. Perhaps it had 

 not long been broken and he had not yet accommodated 

 himself to the changed conditions in which he had to 

 get about on the ground and find his food. I followed 

 and found that, again and again, after the entire scarlet- 

 breasted army had moved on, the lame bird remained 

 behind, his two impatient but faithful companions still 

 keeping with him. Thev would not fly until he flew, 

 and when on the wing still kept their places at his side 

 and on overtaking the flock all three would drop down 

 together. 



The next case is from Penzance and was told to me 

 when I was staring there. A lady of that town, a 

 member of one of its oldest and most distinguished 

 families, is a great bird-lover and feeds the birds during 

 the winter on her lawn. She noticed that a blackbird 

 and thrush always came together to the food, and then 

 that the blackbird fed the other, picking up the morsels 



