made them favourite pets, and so perhaps their in- 

 telligence has not received the recognition it deserves, 

 or if recognised at all it is not very wideh' known. 

 Now I daresay many people who are familiar with the 

 sensational stories of intelligence in animals so often 

 met with, might be disposed to give a bird credit for 

 this amount of memory and affection as a matter of 

 course, and regard it altogether as of very little im- 

 portance ; if so they make a great mistake. This 

 opens up a very large question, the importance of 

 which it is difficult to overrate, and which would lead 

 me far beyond the limits of this paper, but I will very 

 briefly refer to one or two points and carry them 

 further on another occasion. 



To begin at the root of the matter a very little 

 reflection may satisfy anyone that amongst the pecu- 

 liarities and defects we can observe in mankind, there 

 is none more remarkable than the indifference with 

 which he regards his instruments of intelligence. What 

 appears to us the vast complex of existence on this 

 planet is directed to its most minute detail by intelli- 

 gence, that is to say by the brains from which that 

 intelligence emanates. Every defect in those brains 

 in structure or function caused by the errors of he- 

 redity and environment, the transient aberrations by 

 alcohol or drugs, by slight injuries, by weak circulation 

 or sleep, and so on, is reflected in the output of intelli- 

 gence, and in the world of action which subsists on it. 

 Suppose we imagine the result if every individual in 

 the world were embarked in a motor car of the nature 

 of which he was entirely ignorant, knowing nothing 

 of the structure of its works, how to regulate it, how to 

 recognise its defects, or how to correct its vagaries, 



