62 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



by his mate. She remained there, continually walking 

 around the stake in a circle, making now and then a 

 little spring towards him, so that the ground was beaten 

 hard by her tracks. This continued several days, until 

 the kind-hearted wife of the farmer hearing of her 

 actions, went to the field and removed the dead bird, 

 when the other, in a very weak and emaciated condition, 

 flew off to the dovecote. ' 



Edward, the celebrated naturalist, shot a tern ; it fell 

 wounded in the water, and was drifting towards him by 

 the wind. To his astonishment, he saw two other birds 

 fly down to their companion, lift him by his wings — one 

 on each side — carry him six or seven yards, and then set 

 him down gently in the water ; two others then picked him 

 up and carried him another stage,and in this way they con- 

 veyed him to a rock some distance off. Not wishing to lose 

 the bird, he went around to secure it, when not merely 

 a few but the whole flock gathered around him, uttering 

 their piercing cries. He had very nearly reached him, 

 when two birds again picked up the wounded tern, and 

 carried him safely out to sea. 



In both these cases the birds risked their lives for 

 one another. The pigeon certainly had intelligence 

 enough to know that it was unsafe for her to remain 

 upon the spot where her mate was killed. Yet in 

 spite of it, perhaps unconscioas of it in her grief, she 

 exposed herself for several days to the same fate. And 

 the terns plainly knew who was their enemy, since 

 they came forward so gallantly to carry away their 

 wounded comrade as it was drifting towards him. He 

 could have killed them as easily as the first, and they 

 must have known it, '' not perhaps with the same vivid- 

 ness as we would have realized it, but sufficiently to 

 make them aware that they were incurring danger for 

 another," and yet they encountered it without hesitation. 



Among men it is considered the highest form of hero- 

 is 



