GULLIVER AND THE LILLIPUTIANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 2, 3 January 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

GULLIVER AND THE LILLIPUTIANS.

(By ALFRED ANSLEY.)

Just the same as in human life, queer friendships are formed in the animal kingdom and many unusual examples of close relationship between very different types of birds and beasts can be witnessed, in almost any s.phere of animal life. A friend of ours has several bantam chickens which he has carefully reared from their birth and all of them are as tame as can be. They have formed a queer friendship with an animal many times bigger than themselves—none other than a pony. To sec the tiny chicks riding on the pony's j back is a most novel and interesting | sight, although one cannot help but; laugh at the comparative size of them. The bantams do not seem in the least perturbed about the unusual circumstances or the awkward position in which they are placed, nor docs the ponv desert its customary stolidness and ; indifference in carrying such an extra- • ordinary charge. Once off the pony's: back, the chicks run in and out beneath ! his feet without the slightest regard ; for the largeness of the animal, who,; if he but lifted his foot, could ground the bandams into the dust. The horse that shares the paddock with the pony is of a skittish temperament, but it too' displays no ill-feelings toward either the, chicks" or the fowls which run about, much closer to its hoofs than I should j like to be I