^10 The Descent of Man. Part II. 



fact that within the same district, during the height of the 

 breeding-season, there should be so many males and females 

 always ready to repair the loss of a mated bird. Why do not 

 such spare birds immediately pair together ? Have we not some 

 reason to suspect, and the suspicion has occurred to Mr. Jenner 

 Weir, that as the courtship of birds appears to be in many cases 

 prolonged and tedious, so it occasionally happens that certain 

 males and females do not succeed during the proper season, in 

 exciting each other's love, and consequently do not pair ? This 

 suspicion will appear somewhat less improbable after we have 

 seen what strong antipathies and preferences female birds 

 occasionally evince towards particular males. 



Mental Qualities of Birds, and their Taste for the Beautiful. — 

 Before we further discuss 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 9 leading to 

 an opposite conclusion. Low powers of reasoning, however, 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 when one dies the other pines for a long time; 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 afterwards uttering a plaintive call ; and Mr. St. John 

 gives various facts proving the attachment of mated birds. 10 



"They were both shot next day, in 1870, p. 278. Speaking of Japanese 



" the act of feeding the young one, nut-hatches in confinement he says : 



"and the keeper thought it was " Instead of the more yielding fruit 



" done with. The next day he came " of the yew, which is the usual 



" again and found two other chari- " food of the nut-hatch of Japan, at 



" table hawks, who had come with " one time I substituted hard hazel- 



" an adopted feeling to succour the " nuts. As the bird was unable 



" orphan. These two he killed, and " to crack them, he placed them one 



" then left the nest. On returning " by one in his water-glass, evidently 



" afterwards he found two more " with the notion that they would 



" charitable individuals on the same " in time become softer — an interest- 



* errand of mercy. One of these he " ing proof of intelligence on the 



"killed; the other he also shot, " part of these birds." 



" but could not find. No more 10 ' A Tour in Sutherlandshire,' 



"came on the like fruitless errand." vol. i. 1849, p. 185. Dr. Buller 



* I am indebted to Prof. Newtou says ('Birds of New Zealand,' 1872, 



for the following passage from Mr. p. 56) that a male King Lory was 



Al-.im's 'Travels of a Naturalist,' killed; and t be female " fretted and 



