"STRANGE FRIENDSHIPS" IN ANIMALS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIB,—Mr. Ainger, in giving his interesting incident of strange- friendships between animals, asks if there are any precedents for such incongruous intimacy as he saw between a dog and' a pigeon. To most close observers of animals, such curious cases, though always noteworthy, are well known ; naturalists like Buckland and many others have frequently recorded them..
With the view of adding to the lore on this matter, permit me to cite the following. Two Scotch terriers are lying before the fire. Prince' is an amiable sort of dog ; Jack' is rather surly ; both good vermin-killers and fond of hunting. I bring in a common buck rabbit, and place it beside the dogs, with the intimation they were not to touch it. Trust, and then alliance, quickly grew between it and Prince,' whilst Jack '' shows unmistakable hatred. In a few days the two friends, with their paws absurdly clasping each other's necks, sleep. happily on the rug; they play together, they chase each other up and down the stairs and all over the house at full speed, and when tired come back to the rug. Jack' refusing all this sort of thing, makes the rabbit look at him with a sort or awe. Does ' Bunny' make no mess in the house ? None- whatever ; he goes into the garden as the dogs do, and like them, scratches at the door when he wants to return. All this he does without any instruction from us. After a while, being very fond of him, we put on the floor a pretty pink-eyed doe as a present. He stares, sniffs her all over, kills her on the spot,. and goes for a romp with his dear Prince." Jack' always sleeps under my bed from choice, and just before I put out the light as I lie, stands up against the bed for his last pat and " good-night." Bunny' has observed all this, and quietly- creeps into the room, which he refuses to leave ; then likewise always asks for his " good-night," and sleeps somewhere near- his great " ideal."
Another instance, published in " Loch Creran " by my friend' Mr. Anderson Smith. I punished my cat for killing a chicken- The next day he is seen to carry a live chicken in his mouth and lay it down to the hen he bad previously robbed. He an& the chicken afterwards were frequently observed leaving the• orchard together, and travelling through the courtyard and back passages, find their way to the kitchen fireplace, where they would sleep in good-fellowship. This chicken, I dis- covered, had been stolen nearly two miles away. It is im- portant to remark that the cat, though a cruel bird-killer,. never touched another chicken. Was the idea of compensa- tion in the cat's mind ? If not that, all the circumstances are singularly coincident. And why did the chicken prefer the cat's companionship to that of its fellows ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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