100 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
to fly, it is because the impression produced in its senses by the 
approaching man entails, through an incipiently reflex action, a 
partial excitement of all those nerves which in its ancestors had 
been excited under the like conditions ; that this partial excitement 
has its accompanying painful consciousness, and that the vague 
painful consciousness thus arising constitutes emotion proper— 
emotion undecomposable into specific experiences, and, therefore, 
seemingly homogeneous.” (Hssays, vol. i. p. 320.) 
It is comforting to know that the ‘‘ unavoidable inference ” is, 
after all, erroneous, and that the nervous system in birds has not 
yet been organically altered as a result of man’s persceution ; for 
in that case it would take long to undo the mischief, and we 
should be indeed far from that “ better friendship” with the 
children of the air which many of us would like to see. 
