360 Unnatural Attachments among Animals. [April 
intercourse with the elk. As far as this instance may go to estab- 
lish it, we may conclude that the constitutional differences be- 
tween the elk and the cow are so great that they cannot success- 
fully interbreed.” 
Here we find a double anomaly of a very pronounced charac- 
ter. It was not enough that one of these animals should have an 
unnatural inclination which might not occur in one individual in 
many thousands of either species, but both must be possessed of 
this extraordinary inclination or affection, and these two unnat- — 
ral animals must happen to meet together under favorable cit 
cumstances before this phenomenon could occur. | 
We may find some excuse for the wapiti in the fact of which! 
was informed when I bought him in St. Louis; that he had been 
taken when very young and brought up by hand bya farmer it 
Western Missouri, where hé had no doubt associated with the cat : 
tle on the farm and had never seen one of his own species u 
turned into my grounds. Several years’ intimate association with : 
cattle would strongly tend to reconcile him to their society, itt 
did not create a real attachment to them, and so was the way : 
paved, to a certain extent, which led to this unnatural association i 
but it must be added that he never paid the least attention to the 
ather cows in the grounds when they manifested the same condi- - 
tion which no doubt first attracted his attention to the heifer. M 
for the heifer, I can only say that there was no bull in the grounds, 
nor had she ever seen one, so far as I know. : 
These are poor apologies, I confess, for such strange and ee 
natural conduct. a 
I was presented with a couple of sand-hill cranes, and as they 
differed in voice and gait, I supposed they were a pair, but wht : 
both began to lay eggs I found my mistake. Till they yer 
three or four years old they associated together, and sect ie 
on friendly terms at least, after that they separated and wer ane: 
found together as associates. One of these, for a whole sui i 
attached herself to the pigs which ran in an adjoining pa% e 
which she managed to escape. She was their faithful ata 
the whole day. When they went to the spring for water 
went with them, and when they laid down to cool themselves : 
the rivulet, she would sit down close to them and patiently ie, 
till they chose to getup and go to grazing. She never pe 
lead them or control their action, but seemed only too P% 
