* '^ 



ILS N ONT QUE DE L AMEI 

 AN ESSAY ON BIRD-MIND 



"0 Nightingale, thou surely art 

 A creature erf a fiery heart.*' 



— W. Wordsworth. 



"The inferior animals, when the conditions of life are favour- 

 able, are subject to periodical fits of gladness, affecting them 

 powerfully and standing out in vivid contrast to their ordinary 

 temper. . . . Birds are more subject to this universal joyous in- 

 stinct than mammals, and ... as they are much freer than 

 mammals, more buoyant and graceful in action, more loquacious, 

 and have voices so much finer, their gladness shows itself in a 

 greater variety of ways, with more regular and beautiful mo- 

 tions, and with melody." — W. H. Hudson. 



"How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way 

 Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?" 



— Blake. 



/ 



^^ ^ LS n'ont pas de cerveau — Us n'ont que de 

 I'dme." A dog was being described, with all 

 his emotion, his apparent passion to make him- 

 self understood, his failure to reach comprehension; 

 and that was how the French man of letters summed 

 up the brute creation — ''pas de cerveau — que de 

 I ame. 



Nor is it a paradox: it is a half-truth that is more 

 than half true — more true at least than its converse, 

 which many hold. 

 There is a large school to-day who assert that ani- 



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