Friends in Need A number of stories—to which I could
add from my own experience— have recently reached me of the queer confidence shown in man by animals of many sorts, both birds and mammals, when in extreme danger. Here is one of the strangest. Two women (whose names are household words) were paddling their punt on a backwater near Mapledurham when a kingfisher alighted on the edge of their craft, sidled along and allowed, or asked, the punter to take it up in her hand. She found that the bird had a too large fish in its throat which it could neither swallow nor expel. She managed to pull it out, and the kingfisher flew away "without any sign of gratitude." I knew of the case of a lark that dived down into a boat on the Solent to escape from a pursuing hawk and showed no fear of the occupants. They were for the moment friends.
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