A DOMESTICATED PEEWIT. 169 



attack.* I reflected on the circumstance, as a very- 

 extraordinary instance of deviation from the natural 

 instincts of a horse, and related what had happened, 

 to a circle of friends who had come to dinner. One 

 gentleman paid more attention than the rest to my 

 narrative, and allowed that, as a voluntary act, it was 

 a very unusual instance of sagacity and affection ; but 

 as a horse in a state of nature probably fights with 

 his fore feet, it was rather a deviation from his domes- 

 ticated habits than from his instincts. The friend- 

 ship of animals of different species appears to me very 

 extraordinary, as they can have no natural sympathy 

 with each other ; and I suppose that it seldom takes 

 place except in a domesticated state, in which many 

 examples of it are to be found, even when there is a 

 natural antipathy between them. I have read, some- 

 where, of a peewit that was kept tame in a garden, 

 but voluntarily took up its abode in the kitchen during 

 the winter : it associated with a dog and a cat in the 

 chimney-comer, and gradually became so familiar as 

 to show marks of indignation if either of them inter- 

 rupted him when he was washing himself in a basin 

 of water kept for the dog to drink. 



Miss Seward, of Lichfield, who wrote Memoirs of 

 Dr. Darwin, mentions a favourite cat that had been 



• The Most Rev. Dr. Plunket, Roman Catholic Bishop of 

 Meath, was witness of this fact. 



