MEDICAL AND SURGICAL TREATMENT. 381 



A pleasing and common result of man's good service to 

 other animals is the development and exhibition of lively 

 gratitude. Distinct recognition of benefit conferred by man is 

 exhibited even by the bee. The form that the exhibition of 

 it takes varies greatly, including many bizarreries of conduct. 

 One of the most frequent forms of the manifestation of grati- 

 tude is attachment to man's person, an attachment that leads 

 wild animals, for instance, to renounce their freedom and 

 become domesticated. Thus a rook that had a wounded wing 

 and was nursed by man till it could use its wing freely again, 

 though set at liberty hovered about the house of its bene- 

 factor, obeying his call, coming to be fed in preference to 

 foraging for itself, and following him from place to place, as 

 a dog would do (Wood). A delicate chicken that had been 

 carefully tended by a humane mistress until its restoration 

 to health f attached itself vehemently to its nurse, and used 

 to follow her over the house, calling her anxiously until seated 

 in her lap.' A short-tailed field mouse having been relieved 

 from ticks, with which it was infested, ' did not try to escape, 

 and on the very first day took food from the hand of its 

 benefactor' (Wood). 



Another common mode of expressing gratitude for benefits 

 received and appreciated, is the presentation of various kinds 

 of goodivill offerings to a master or mistress. In such cases, 

 the grateful animal makes frequently, if not usually, what 

 unthinking man may consider a most singular and unfit 

 selection ; as where cats bring a mouse dead or alive as 

 their offering. But a little reflection will show us that in 

 such a case the animal makes offering of what to her appears 

 most valuable, and she does so at great self-sacrifice, involving 

 what is probably dearer to her than her own life the com- 

 fort or well-being of her progeny. For when offering a cap- 

 tured mouse to a mistress, the poor cat may not only be 

 hungry herself, but she may have a famished litter of expec- 

 tant, clamorous kittens. She, therefore, literally brings forth 

 her best gift and places it on the altar of her gratitude. 



