MESMERIZING BIRDS. 99 



find that in my excitement I have tried to get "all outdoors " on 

 my plate, for also on the same piece of glass I have previously ex- 

 posed a landscape, but "the other way up," resulting in a gro- 

 tesque disappointment.— y. H. McFarland, Country Life in Amer- 

 ica. 



Mesmerizing Birds. 



Dr. William Beebe, curator of the Bronx Zoological Garden, has 

 been mesmerizing birds with considerable success. He appealed 

 to the bird's minds through his own and brought them under his 

 influence by looking at them steadily. He says that to do it he 

 had to force his own mentality down nearer the level of the birds, 

 because his mind worked against them and obtruded so much that 

 his patients became terrified. This process he called "partly mes- 

 merizing himself." In that condition he was able to force an idea, 

 a wish to do something which he orders, upon the birds, thus prov- 

 ing that at least mental telepathy was possible between bird and 

 man. 



Birds, Dr. Beebe discovered, differ in a remarkable degree in the 

 susceptibility to suggestion. For instance, a catbird, after a half 

 hour's effort to bring it under control, refused to give in, while a 

 large saw-whet owl became sleepy after an effort of five minutes. 

 He became so drowsy that he could hardly keep his place on the 

 perch, so unsteady did he become. 



An English sparrow was entirely unmanageable, but a white- 

 throated sparrow came under the influence at once. When the 

 birds awakened the after effects were noteworthy. Although ap- 

 parently as wide awake and active as before, they were remarkably 

 tame and did not fly away when he thrust his fingers at them. If 

 he took them into his hand they pecked a little fretfully, and 

 when released perched upon the cage and proceeded to arrange 

 their plumage. Before they were hypnotized they would never 

 have allowed such familiarity and would have been thrown into a 

 spasm of fright at the first advance. They would not notice their 

 companions in their cage, but followed their master about, coming 

 close to the wire of the cage, as if they loved him. 



The doctor claims that they are susceptible to the influence be- 

 cause birds have highly developed intellectual and emotional char- 

 acter. In the first place, birds have remarkable memories. A pig- 

 eon is said to have remembered a person after months, and a bul- 



