PuKNELL. — The Animal and Human Mind coyniKired. 79 



raise up their wings, stretch out their necks, and elevate their 

 exquisite plumes, keeping tliem in a continual vibration. 

 Between whiles they fly across from branch to branch in 

 great excitement, so that the whole tree is filled with waving 

 plumes in every variety of attitude and motion." Wallace 

 describes the manner in which the bird spreads and expands 

 its plumes, and remarks that, " when seen in this attitude, the 

 bird of paradise really deserves its name, and must be ranked 

 as one of the most beautiful and most wonderful of living 

 beings." 



Other examples might be given of the habits of birds which 

 suggest in them the capacity for enjoying refined pleasure, 

 which in man is attributed to an aesthetic sense, derived from 

 the love of the beautiful, as revealed in music, motion, and 

 colour. Whether, however, the mental origin of these vocal 

 and picturesque displays is identical in the bird and in the 

 human being is a question not essential to my present argu- 

 ment. The striking development of apparently aesthetic 

 tastes in birds finds no counterpart in any other order of 

 animals. It is the distinguishing mental feature of the Avian 

 race ; and, when our researches into the mental powers of 

 animals become more advanced, we shall probably discover 

 that other classes of animals also possess their own special 

 mental characteristics, although of a kind less attractive 

 to us. 



Certain animals exhibit psychical peculiarities which indi- 

 cate that elements exist in their minds not present in the 

 human mind. The sense of direction, whereby many animals, 

 after being transported to long distances, can find their way 

 back to their homes by a direct route along untried paths, is 

 one. A remarkable example of this power is recorded as 

 having occurred in 1816. In that year an ass was embarked 

 at Gibraltar for Malta, in the frigate " Ister." The vessel 

 grounded upon some sandbanks near Cape Gata, in Spain, 

 and the ass was thrown overboard to give it a chance of re- 

 gaining land. This the animal succeeded in doing, and made 

 its way in the course of a few days to a stable at Gibraltar 

 which it had formerly occupied. In order to reach Gibraltar 

 it had made a journey of over two hundred miles, through a 

 mountainous and diflicult country, intersected by numerous 

 streams of water, and which it had never traversed before. 

 It may safely be averred that no human being ignorant of 

 the relative geographical positions of Cape Gata and Gibraltar, 

 as the ass must necessarily have been, could have accomplished 

 such a feat. 



Some facts were elicited during a discussion upon the out- 

 lying islands south of New Zealand, which took place at a 

 meeting of the W^ellington Philosophical Society last Novem- 



