XX 
HIS INTELLIGENCE 
BEForRE people knew very much about the 
ways of birds, it was thought that they do not 
have to be taught anything, but that they know 
everything they need to know, as soon as they 
are born. That is, they were said to act from 
instinct alone, and not at all from reason, as 
we do. 
Another notion that people had was that 
birds of a kind are just alike. That they look 
exactly like each other, all act in the same way, 
and all sing the same song. 
But since we have begun to study birds more 
closely, we find these things are not true. We 
find that birds learn things by being taught, as 
we do. Also, they find out how to do things 
themselves, and they are not all alike, as so many 
machines. 
More than this, we see that they do not look 
nor act exactly like each other. For when we 
know one robin or one oriole well, we can tell 
