SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 155 
a higher development of this emotion than to any other creatures 
below man. Reptiles can be trained to know their keeper, and 
an alligator will defend her buried eggs; dogs are unusually 
affectionate animals, and the higher monkeys have many sym- 
pathetic habits and emotions, but birds lead them all. This is 
not remarkable when we consider the wonderfully important 
place which the family holds in this class of vertebrates. The 
building of the nest, the comparatively long incubation of the 
eggs,and the patient feeding and complex education of the young 
birds all are duties in which both parents often share. It is this 
continued association, this “bridging over of generations,” which 
has made sympathy so prominent a factor in the minds of birds. 
In what other class of animals are vocal signals of fear, distress, 
or terror so widely understood, or so willingly met with efforts 
of assistance? 
To me it seems puerile to try to believe that a bird’s affection 
for her young, so great that she will often give her life in their 
defense, can be correlated with an imstinct, using that word in 
the common acceptance of the term. It is no more an instinct 
in the sense of an uncontrollable emotion than is the analogous 
action of an heroic human being. Altruism, pure and simple, 
has governed the action of more than one bird under my obser- 
vation during the past y€ar, and that, too, in some instances, 
between birds of different species. Three instances come to 
mind: a female red-winged blackbird which carried a mouthful 
of worms to a nestful of young red-wings near by, before passing 
on to brood her own eggs, as yet unhatched ; a loon which volun- 
tarily risked his life to free a pied-billed grebe from a nearly 
fatal ice-trap; and a great crowned pigeon which assumed the 
care of and sheltered a nestling ring-dove deserted by its parents. 
Another aspect of the mental processes of birds shows us ex- 
amples of revenge being taken after long and patient waiting 
for a favorable opportunity, while on the other hand crows have 
been known again and again to sit in judgment upon one of their 
number, and to sentence and punish it with death. 
The language of birds is most complex, and all, from the mar- 
vellous song of the nightingale and the imitative powers of the 
mocking-bird, to the many moods and feelings reflected in the 
apparently meaningless chirps of our city sparrows, tell of men- 
tal powers striving for expression. 
In man the various emotions depend upon language and the 
range of expression of the face for their outward demonstra- 
tion, and it is interesting té compare with this the state of affairs 
