BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 
ais alleged, fall upon a wounded comrade 
and destroy it. Wishing to satisfy himself 
on the point, Houssay, having come upon 
some ducks in a small pond, deliberately 
pelted them with stones till he had wounded 
one of their number. Instead, however, of 
behaving as he had been led to expect, the 
rest of the ducks formed close order round 
the wounded bird and sheltered it from 
further harm. 
Few domestic animals none, possibly, 
with the single exception of the camel are 
less suggestive of " pets " than such gross 
poultry, yet even a gander, the most vicious 
tempered of them all, has been known to 
show lasting gratitude for an act of kindness. 
The bird, which had long been the terror of 
children in the little Devonshire village near 
which it lived, managed one day to get 
wedged in a drain, and there it would eventu- 
ally have died unseen if a passing labourer 
had not seen its plight and set it at liberty. 
Down to the day of its death the bird, 
though nowise relinquishing its spiteful 
attitude towards others, followed its rustic 
benefactor about the place like a dog. 
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