100 
ALMOST HUMAN 
take his place from the opposite side, and this stately and graceful inter- 
change of positions adds lightness and beauty to the whole scene. 
These evolutions go on tirelessly for a long while, until one of the 
birds inevitably does something wrong — interferes with the graceful 
stepping of his partner, or clumsily impedes the progression, and so 
angers his neighbor, who is mightily proud of his proficiency. Immedi- 
ately the outraged performer begins to chase the wrongdoer out of the 
dance with terrific noise and clapping of wings. Without any parley 
to discover the rights and wrongs of things, all the other birds join in 
the pursuit. Numbers gradually tell, and the disgraced member of the 
company falls back and back until he is quite outside the pale, where 
he is left to repent of his wickedness at his leisure. As if completely 
crushed by the disgrace of relationship with the outcast, the rest of the 
flock return soberly to the serious duties of life, all dancing forgotten 
until some other cause for thanksgiving arises — preferably the emergence 
of the sun after a storm. 
A BEAUTIFUL IDYLL. 
Much interest was taken not long since in a pair of baby native 
companions brought to the Zoo. The flock there had gradually dwindled 
to one, and so these newcomers were gladly welcomed, but one of the 
pair was a very sickly youngster, and the staff believed it would be 
useless to insure its life for a fortnight. The elder of the two was 
quite robust and cheery, but the baby had a most plaintive cry, which 
it kept up with irritating persistency throughout its waking hours. On 
one side of their paddock was the only adult member of the tribe; on the 
other was one of the beautiful white Asiatic cranes. The native 
companion took not the slightest notice of the delicate baby; the Asiatic 
crane pitied its helplessness almost from the first, and soon tried to 
succor it. Whenever he got a bit of food or a worm, he went to the 
dividing fence and offered it to the weakling. Then he adopted the 
baby as his own, and watched it all day long. When a keeper went 
inside to attend to the little ones, the great white bird flew to the fence, 
threw open his magnificent wings and flapped them menacingly, while 
making the curious guttural sound that they always emit in temper or 
fear, as if daring the man to touch the baby he had chosen to protect. 
Whether this loving kindness had anything to do with its improvement 
can only be a matter of conjecture, but it is certain that the baby soon 
began to show progress after the white crane’s care commenced, and in 
a few weeks it was impossible to recognise the well-set-up little creature 
for the dying thing brought there so short a time before. 
