122 A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS 



never yet been found without a coat of these polyps, 

 nor have the polyps ever yet been seen anywhere but 

 on this particular fish. The polyps are not parasites, 

 as is proved by the facts, first, that they have a 

 mouth of the proper form, and tentacles of the proper 

 size and number wherewith to catch their own prey ; 

 and secondly, that numerous individuals can always 

 be found crammed with food, which must have gone 

 in at their mouth. It is not the sordid bond of 

 parasitism but the happy tie of commensalism which 

 unites these two animals so very wide apart in the 

 scale, and while the fish constantly carries its polyp- 

 friends to pastures new, the polyps in return help to 

 conceal the fish from the watchful eyes of its foes. 



I have already spoken of the jheels — formed by 

 the blocking of the drainage of the land by drifting 

 sand-dunes — which occur all along this coast, and the 

 wildfowl that haunt them during the winter months. 

 One afternoon, when I was shooting on the banks of 

 one of these jheels, I witnessed an act of bravery and 

 devotion on the part of a Brahminy cluck that, I think, 

 is worthy of record. A flight of these wary birds 

 passed overhead, giving me a long shot, which winged 

 one of them and brought it fluttering down, luckily 

 for itself, into the water instead of on to hard ground. 

 As soon as the rest of the fiock noticed the accident 

 they all with one consent stopped and hovered, and 



