104 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part IL 



accept the first whom they may encounter, it will be ad- 

 visable briefly to consider the mental powers of birds. 

 Their reason is generally, and perhaps justly, ranked as 

 low; yet some facts could be given 9 leading to an oppo- 

 site conclusion. Low powers of reasoning, however, are 

 compatible, as we see with mankind, with strong affec- 

 tions, 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 at- 

 tached to each other that when 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 

 exaggerated. Nevertheless when one of a pair in a state 

 of nature has been shot, the survivor has been heard for 

 days afterward uttering a plaintive call ; and Mr. St. John 

 gives 10 various facts proving the attachment of mated 

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

 soled thrice in the same day for the loss of their mates. 

 In the Zoological Gardens parrots have clearly recognized 

 their former masters after an interval of some months. 

 Pigeons have such excellent local memories that they 

 have been known to return to their former homes after an 

 interval of nine months, yet, as I hear from Mr. Harrison 

 Weir, if a pair which would naturally remain mated for 

 life be separated for a few weeks during the winter and 

 matched with other birds, the two, when brought together 

 again, rarely, if ever, recognize each other. 



Birds sometimes exhibit benevolent feelings ; they will 



9 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. The 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 iu 

 Bimilar cases." 



10 'Tour in Sutherlandshire,' vol. i. 1849, p. 185. 



