xxxviii THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



and snakes, when tamed, exhibit some degree of affection for their master or mistress ; 

 while cobras may not only be tamed but domesticated. 



Between the lower vertebrates and the birds and mammals there is a wide intellec- 

 tual gulf. In birds, the reasoning as ojiposed to the simply instinctive acts are 

 ■numerous. Birds are active, volatile, hot-blooded creatures, all their senses acute, 

 and their cerebral hemispheres are far better developed than in the lower classes. 



To illustrate the high degree of intelligence of birds, we will state some of the con- 

 clusions given by Romanes, referring the reader to his interesting work on Animal 

 Intelligence for the anecdotes supporting his generalizations. The memory of birds 

 for localities is well illustrated by their migratory habit of returning year after year 

 to the same breeding-place. Buckland gives an account of a jjigeoii which remem- 

 bered the voice of its mistress after an absence of eighteen months. Wilson relates 

 an instance where a tame crow, after an absence of about eleven months, recog- 

 nized his master. Parrots, which are perhaps the most intelligent of birds, sometimes 

 chatter their phrases in their dreams, and " this shows a striking similarity of psychi- 

 cal processes in the operations of memory with those which occur in ourselves." 

 Parrots have the power of association of ideas, and they not only remember, but 

 recollect ; " that is to say, they know when there is a missing link in a train of asso- 

 ciation, and purposely endeavor to pick it up." 



Among the emotions, birds for the first time show unmistakable feelings of affec- 

 tion and sympathy. The loves of birds, the pining for an absent mate, and the con- 

 jugal affection of doves, etc., proves that in them the simple sexual feelings are 

 heightened and enhanced by the intellect. Their jealousy is proverbial, as seen in 

 the singing birds; they also show emulation and resentment as well as vindictiveness; 

 their curiosity — the signs of a quick intellect — is highly developed ; they have 

 aesthetic emotions, love of bright-colored objects shown by the bower-bird, which 

 builds its bowers at sporting-places in which the sexes meet, and where the males 

 display their finery. Moreover, the singing birds, which stand at the head of the 

 avian series, show a decided fondness for the music of their mates, aside from any 

 utilit.irian or sexual motives. Canaries, parrots, and doves are well known to take 

 delight in human vocal or instrumental music. 



The nesting habits of birds call out our admiration not only for their wonderful 

 architectural traits, but for the signs they exhibit of a plastic instinct, where reason 

 teaches them to modify their nests in situation and form to adapt them to new condi- 

 tions. In Montana and Colorado the wild goose builds in trees; the cuckoo occa^ 

 sionally lays her eggs on the bare ground, sits on them, and feeds her young; the 

 falcon, which usually builds on cliffs, has been known to lay its eggs on the ground in 

 a marsh ; the house-swallow in the United States has changed its nesting habits since 

 the country was settled and houses were built. The nests of young birds, as first 

 noticed by Wilson, are distinctly inferior to those of older ones, both in situation and 

 construction. " As we have here independent testimony of two good observers to a 

 fact which in itself is not improbable, I think we may conclude that the nest-making 

 instinct admits of being supplemented, at any rate in some birds, by the experience 

 and intelligence of the individual. M. Poucliet has also recorded that he has found a 

 decided improvement to have taken place in the nests of the swallows at Rouen 

 during his own lifetime ; and this accords with the anticipation of Leroy, that if our 

 observations extended over a sufficient length of time, and in a manner sufficiently 

 close, we should find that the accumulation of intelligent improvements by individuals 



