64 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



listless attitude after all his fellows had gone, he was 

 waiting for his little black comrade and would not have 

 his supper without him. 



It was getting dark when the blackbird at length 

 flew off to the wood, and at once the pheasant, with 

 head up, began walking in the same direction ; then 

 running and soon launching himself on the air he flew 

 straight into the pines. 



My experience is that friendships between bird and 

 bird, if the preference of two individuals for each 

 other's company can be described by that word, is not 

 at all uncommon, though I usually find that game- 

 keepers " don't quite seem to see it." That is only 

 natural in their case ; it is but a reflex effect of the 

 gun in the hand on the keeper's mind. Yet one of the 

 keepers on the estate, to whom I related this incident, 

 although inclined to shake his head, told me he had 

 observed a ringed dotterel and a redshank keeping 

 company for a space of two or three months last year. 

 It was impossible not to see, he said, what close friends 

 they were, as they invariably went together even when 

 feeding with other shore birds. It is a thing we notice 

 sometimes when the companionship is between two 

 birds of different species, but it is probable that it is 

 far more common among those of the same species, 

 and that among the gregarious and social kinds the 

 unmated ones as a rule have their chums in the flock. 



The friendship I observed between the two birds at 

 Wells reminded me of the case of a pheasant who had 

 human friends ; it is the only instance I have met 



