122 



some cases, to distinguish between automatic and 

 intelligent acts, for instance the faculty of talking 

 possessed b)' Parrots and other birds ; which is it ? 

 It is generall}^ considered automatic, but many people 

 who have kept these birds are very positive that they 

 understand at least some of the things they sa}^ and 

 they give instances which are difficult to explain 

 otherwise. The complete solution of this question 

 may be regarded as one of the problems of the future, 

 and its settlement will be facilitated by a careful record 

 of facts. 



It is possible that the intelligence of birds maj^ 

 differ somewhat in type as well as in degree from that 

 of the higher mammals. Structurally a bird's brain is 

 of a lower type than the intelligence some of them 

 exhibit might lead us to expect. If we compare draw- 

 ings of the same size of the brain of a reptile, a bird, 

 and a sheep, it will be seen at once that there is more 

 general resemblance between the brains of the bird 

 and the reptile than of the bird and the sheep, yet few 

 people would admit that a sheep was more intelligent 

 than a parrot. Of course in the first place it is wrong 

 to compare a creature which has been bred for cen- 

 turies for wool and mutton with a domestic pet. 

 We should compare a wild bird with a wild sheep. 

 Secondly as regards the relation of brain to body 

 weight, the bird has an advantage over the mammal. 

 So there are many factors in the problem, but it is an 

 interesting and important one, and we want every fact 

 that can be collected bearing on the nature and extent 

 of the intelligence of birds. 



If records are to possess any value they must be 

 free from faults which disfigure much of the material 



