St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1901-05-11
ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS.
Cases Of Genuine Platonic Comradeshipa
in the Lower Orders.

in the Lower Orders.
Everyone is familiar Withnanv an
ecdetes illustrating the strong affee-
ton that animals are capable OF dis
playing toward one another. In tbs
great majority Of quoted cases, how
ever, says the London News, thas af-
feetion IS result Of the sexual or the.
parental instinct. For love Of a mate
OF rof offspring there's scarcely an AMI.
nal that will not display courage and
solicitude the point ofself-sacrifce
when the occasion denandsit. What
Is Is not 50 familiar is the fact. that
friendship and good eomradeship,
lending to acts Of most disinterested
kindness, are frequently DISPLAYED
alnong animals even among very
loNly species quite apart from
either the sexual Or the paternal IN
stincts. Tt is an undoubted fact that
many Of the lower creatures are ca
pable in a very high degree Of this
feeling Of eomradeship, and Of dis
playing much courage and devotion
il the exercise of if.
The Well-knoWn fact of the adop-
tion Of orphans By adult monkeys
may perhaps be. elassed as only a
transfer Of parental affection, but it
is interesting to rote in this connee-
tlon. Similarly, the authenticated
cases Of parrots dying for loss Of their
mates, the instance given by DR.. Bull
Ter IN his Birds Of New Zealand Of
| q female King Lory which fretted
and moped, refused her food and died
of broken heart when the male was
killed, and the incident noted by Mr..
Bennett of a pair Of teals which were
separated and moped for weeks, al
though courted BY Others, until they
were paired again after a month, and
| spent days IN the exhibition Of ex-
treme JOY at recovering one another,
1all come within the range Of sexual
explanation.
One OF the most interesting mani
festatlons Of friendship among ami
fmals. apart from sexual affection, is
that displayed by species which take
care Of infirm and disabled comrades.
Mr.. Buxton gives an instance Of a
wild parrot taking care Of a frost-bit-
ten and crippled bird Of distinct spe-
cies, ard Of the same sex, cleaning
| her feathers for her, providing her
with food and defending her from at
tack A similar concern forfhe blind
has often been noticed. Capt. Stans-
i*bury relates that he observed IN
Utah an old and blind and very fat
pelican which was being very care
fully tended BY several Others, and
had evidently. by its condition, been
/ 50 tended for a long time. Mr.. Blyth
tells Us that he has seen Indian crows
feeding the blind IN a similar way, and
Darwin observed the same conduct in
THE case Of ordinary domestic cocks.
! These cases are specially interesting,
because it seems to be generally
thought that all animals treat old and
Iiinfir1n members Of their species with
what we should regard as the utmost
rigor Of cruelty
A very notable Illustration Of com
radeship among animals is that re-
lated BY Brehm in his Abssynian trav-
Iels. His party came across troop
Of balloons crossing a valley All Of
them got away from the travellers ex-
lcept one small and rather weakly
male, which climbed a block Of rocks
and sat hoWling, surrounded by dogs.
Before the travellers had time to get
| up an old male charged down the val
ley side, dispersed the dogs and res
|cned its comrade, bearing him off
with a howl Of triumph. Darwin,
quoting this incident, calls the ba-
boon a true hero. descriptionthor-
foughly well deserved. If the balloons
have anything corresponding TO the
Victoria cross this brave creature Ger.
taiTlIy deserved II.