ODD FRIENDSHIPS 163 



minute. If any other crane came near, or any visitor, 

 the goose rushed at it and made as if it would bite. 

 The cranes it did bite, seizing their legs. A mate 

 was found for the crane, and for six months it was 

 kept elsewhere, unseen by the goose. The fresh bird 

 died, and the goose, to whose enclosure the crane 

 returned, at once renewed the friendship. It was 

 quite a personal liking, for there was an unrivalled 

 selection of other cranes to choose from. 



When a cat and dog become chums, one or the other 

 is generally a young one. Their chief object in asso- 

 ciating seems to be play or boisterous romps, in which 

 the cat submits to very rough treatment as the dog 

 grows more excited, and always seems to enjoy the 

 sport the rougher it is. We have seen a small cat 

 almost swallowed by a full-grown young bloodhound, 

 picked up and flung into the air, and swung almost 

 from one side of the room to the other, still renewing 

 the mimic fight, until, when quite exhausted, she 

 would slip under a bureau to get breath. It seemed 

 as if her bones must get broken, yet she was not 

 damaged. 



An Australian opossum and a setter became most 

 excellent comrades, the opossum lying asleep by the 

 setter on the hearthrug by day, and playing with him 

 in the evening. The dog even submitted, though he 

 did not like it, to the opossum washing his face, which 

 it did by licking it all over while it solicitously held 

 the dog's muzzle in its sharp-clawed little paws. The 

 first advances in this case came from the opossum ; but 

 the setter was not a normally minded dog, being rather 



