282 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



decoration in other classes, at least as low down in the 

 scale as the Articulata. But, as I have said, Mr. Darwin 

 has dealt with this whole subject in so exhaustive a manner 

 that it is needless for me to enter upon it further than to 

 say in general terms, that whatever we may think of his 

 theory of sexual selection, his researches have unquestion- 

 ably proved the existence of an aesthetic sense in animals. 

 The same fact appears to be shown in another way by 

 the fondness of song-birds for the music of their mates. 

 There can be no doubt that male birds charm their females 

 with their strains, and that this, in fact, is the reason why 

 song in birds has become developed. Of course it may 

 be said that the vocal utterances of birds are not always, 

 or even generally, musical ; but this does not affect the 

 fact that birds find some aesthetic pleasure in the sounds 

 which they emit ; it only shows that the standard of 

 aesthetic taste differs in different species of birds as it 

 does in different races of men. Moreover, the pleasure 

 which birds manifest in musical sounds is not always re- 

 stricted to the sounds which they themselves produce. 

 Parrots seem certainly to take delight in hearing a piano 

 play or a girl sing ; and the following instance, published 

 by the musician John Lockman, reveals in a remarkable 

 manner the power of distinguishing a particular air, and 

 of preferring it above others. He was staying at the house 

 of a Mr. Lee in Cheshire, whose daughter used to play ; 

 and whenever she played the air of ' Speri si ' from 

 Handel's opera of ' Admetus,' a pigeon would descend from 

 an -adjacent dovecot to the window of the room where she 

 sat, * and listen to the air apparently with the most pleas- 

 ing emotions,' always returning to the dovecot immedi- 

 ately the air was finished. But it was only this one air 

 that would induce the bird to behave in this way. 1 



Special Habits. 



Under this heading we shall have a number of facts 

 to consider, which are more or less of a disconnected cha- 

 racter. 



1 Binglcy, Animal Biography, vol. ii., p. 220. 



