Queer Friendships 



whose teeth and gums they remove leeches, both give 

 warning in return for food. The friendship of bird for 

 bird is uncommon, but a striking case is that of the rosy 

 bee-eater and the crested bustard, described by Mr 

 Arthur Neumann in the following words : " The bee- 

 eater habitually rides about on the back of the large 

 crested bustard or 'pauw' which is common about the 

 north-east extremity of Bassu. It sits far back on the 

 rump of its mount, as a boy rides a donkey. The ' pauw ' 

 does not seem to resent this liberty, but stalks majestically 

 along, while its brilliantly clad little jockey keeps a look- 

 out, sitting sideways, and now and again flies up after an 

 insect it has espied, returning again after the chase to 

 ' its camel,' as Juma (a native servant) not inaptly called 

 it. I have also noticed this pretty little bird sitting on 

 the backs of goats, sheep and antelopes, but the * pauw ' 

 seems its favourite steed. I imagine it gets more flights 

 in this way at game put up by its bearer, which also 

 affords it a point of vantage whence to sight and pursue 

 its prey in a country where suitable sticks to perch on 

 are few." 



Of strange bedfellows in the bird world there are 

 many. Small and defenceless birds will often nest on 

 the outer portions of the enormous nests of the osprey. 

 The burrowing owl shares a burrow with the prairie dog ; 

 certain New Zealand petrels dwell and nest in the same 

 burrows as the formidable teratera lizard. But let us pass 

 to other examples in the animal world. 



That any creature should make a friend of the cruel 

 and voracious shark is almost unbelievable, yet the pilot- 

 fish does so. Few creatures will, of their own free will, 

 approach a shark, so the pilot-fish lives its life free from 

 danger, and in return it removes certain parasites from 

 the shark's skin. 



Our last example can hardly be termed a friendship, we 

 fear. It concerns a night-flying moth and a plant. That 

 the insect might have friendly feelings towards the plant 



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