8o ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



I take it that in these instances the act does not pro- 

 ceed from friendship but from the helping instinct 

 common in animals of social habits. We know it best 

 in the large mammals — cattle, swine, peccaries, deer, 

 elephants, and many more. Even the unsocial cat will 

 sometimes feed a fellow-cat. In birds -it appears to 

 have its origin in the parental instinct of feeding and 

 protecting the young from danger. A young bird 

 that has lost its parents will sometimes find a response 

 to its hunger-call from a bird stranger, and in some 

 instances the stranger is of a different species. It may 

 be noted here that, in some species, the incubating 

 female when fed by the male reverts to the hunger-cry 

 and gestures of the young. The cry of distress too in 

 an old bird, when captured or injured, which excites 

 its fellows and brings them to its rescue, is like the cry 

 of distress and terror in the young. 



Many other cases one meets with of a close com- 

 panionship between individuals result from the im- 

 patience of solitude in a social species. So intolerable 

 is loneliness to some animals that they will attach them- 

 selves to any creature they can scrape acquaintance with, 

 without regard to its kind or habits or of disparity in 

 size. I remember a case of this kind which was re- 

 corded many years ago, of a pony confined by itself in 

 a field and a partridge — a solitary bird who was perhaps 

 the only one of its species in that place. They were 

 always to be seen together, the partridge keeping with 

 the pony where he grazed, and when he rested from 

 grazing sitting contentedly at his feet. No doubt 



