388 Life and Tinmortahty. 
and yet, when in good hands, they are sure to become very 
loving friends, and even to show considerable sympathy 
towards each other. Such an exhibition of good feeling 
was observed by the writer a few yearsago. The dog,a 
large black Newfoundland, had contracted a warm and 
devoted friendship for a gray cat that was an inmate of the 
same family. When the cat was assailed by one of her 
kind, or by a strange dog, the Newfoundland would pick her 
up in his mouth and carry her to the house out of reach of 
danger, the cat maintaining all the while the most perfect 
serenity of composure, knowing that she was in the care of 
one who meant her no ill: When the same cat would 
become sick, the Newfoundland would lie down by her side, 
caress her with his tongue, and show in every way possible 
that he was sorry that she was sick. 
Many examples are recorded of birds feeling sympathy 
with the lost or deserted young of other species, and that 
have taken upon themselves the task of feeding the starving 
children. A pair of robins had constructed a nest near to 
the writer's home in the country, where in due season a 
family of four children was raised. Disaster soon came 
to the little ones, for both parents were slain by some wicked 
boys of the neighborhood. There dwelt in the same locality 
a pair of bluebirds, but between the two families there had 
never been apparent the least interchange of friendship. 
Each family kept to itself, and attended to its own business. 
But when the cry of the young robins in their piteous 
demands for food rent the air, the bluebirds came over to their 
home to discover what the trouble was. They were not 
slow to perceive the sad state of things. Their sympathies 
were at once aroused, and their energies soon bent in the 
direction of relieving the sufferings of the little orphaned 
robins. For the next two weeks they had all they could do 
in providing meat for their own and the robins’ young. 
While capable of showing sympathy for near as well as 
distant kin, the lower animals have also the capacity to 
