HOW THE BIRDS KNOW 309 



cave or his garden, to his present state of form, 

 feature, and accomplishment. Equal to, if not an- 

 tedating him, the birds have kept pace with him 

 in evolutionfthe difference being that man devel- 

 ops after the manner of human beings, while birds 

 develop after the manner of their kind. Man is 

 endowed with a reasoning, thinking brain, which 

 grows more capable by being used through the 

 ages. The birds are equally well endowed after 

 a different manner. It is not theirs to reason and 

 think as man does, yet if left in wholly natural 

 conditions the birds know more than man. Man 

 becomes lost in a trackless waste; the birds know 

 the way across great deserts or a thousand miles of 

 water. Man has often starved in the open; the 

 birds know what food they may take with safety. 

 Man learns through his own experience and by 

 heeding the experience of his ancestors. The birds 

 learn a different lesson which is their birthright. 

 How much they know, we can only guess by what 

 they do. We can know how far they fly through 

 a close study of migration. We learn how far 

 they can see when we watch a hawk or eagle drop 

 unerringly from the clouds and snatch up a snake 

 from ear tli. 



We know of their devotion to each other, because 

 we constantly see birds risking their lives in de- 

 fense of a mate or nestling. We know that they 

 can communicate with each other, because we 

 constantly hear them call and answer, see numbers 



