108 SEXUAL SELECTION : BTEDS. Part IL 



strong antipathies and preferences female birds occa- 

 sionally evince towards particular males. 



Mental Qualities of Birds, and their taste for the 

 heauUful. — Before we discuss any further the question 

 whether the females select the more attractive males 

 or accept the first whom they may encounter, it will be 

 advisable briefly to consider the mental powers of birds. 

 Their reason is generally, and perhaps justly, ranked 

 as low ; yet some facts could be given ^ leading to an 

 opposite conclusion. Low powers of reasoning, how- 

 ever, are compatible, as we see with mankind, with 

 strong affections, acute perception, and a taste for the 

 beautiful ; and it is with these latter qualities that we 

 are here concerned. It has often been said that parrots 

 become so deeply attached to each other that wdien 

 one dies the other for a long time pines ; but Mr. 

 Jenner Weir thinks that with most birds the strength 

 of their affection has been much exao^ci^erated. Never- 

 theless when one of a pair in a state of nature has 

 been shot, the survivor has been heard for days after- 

 wards uttering a plaintive call ; and Mr. St. John 

 gives -^^ various facts proving the attachment of mated 

 birds. Starlings, however, as we have seen, may be 

 consoled thrice in the same day for the loss of their 

 mates. In the Zoological Gardens parrots have clearly 



" individuals on the same errand of mercy. One of these he killed ; 

 " the other he also shot, but could not find. No more came on the like 

 " fruitless errand." 



^ For instance, Mr. Yarrell states (' Hist. British Birds,' vol. iii, 1845, 

 p. 585) that a gull was not able to swallow a small bird which had been 

 given to it. TJ]e gull " paused for a moment, and then, as if suddenly 

 " recollecting himself, ran off at full speed to a pan of water, shook the 

 " bird about in it until well soaked, and immediately gulped it down. 

 " Since that time he invariably has had recourse to the same expedient 

 " in similar cases." 



i» 'A Tour in Sutherlaudshire,' vol. i. 1849, p. 185. 



