122 INTELLIGENCE. 



not acquire their full plumage till the second, or 

 even perhaps in some species till the third year. 

 We have, therefore, no reason to believe that 

 they are very short-lived, according to the laws 

 of nature. 



On comparing the intelligence of the Hum- 

 ming-birds with that displayed among other 

 groups of the feathered race, we do not find that 

 they sink in the scale. The narratives of those 

 who have had the best opportunities of observ- 

 ing them in their native climates lead us to the 

 opposite conclusion. If we look at the skull of 

 the Humming-bird, comparing it with the rest of 

 the skeleton, we shall find it large, high, and boldly 

 arched; it is voluminous, notwithstanding the 

 size of the orbits of the eyes, and cceteris paribus, 

 it is as superior to that of a fowl or duck as is 

 the skull of Caucasian man over that of the ape. 

 To the size of the skull in these birds "Wilson 

 alludes, in his history of the ETTBT-THEOAT ; he 

 also observes that the heart is nearly as large as 

 the cranium, having its fibres very strong; and he 

 adds that he found the brain " large in quantity, 

 and very thin." What he precisely means by 

 the expression, " very thin" (and yet large in 

 quantity), we do not quite understand. Per- 

 haps he alludes to the sudden tapering of the 

 brain towards the olfactory nerves, whence it 

 assumes a triangular appearance: such is the 

 general character of the brain of birds ; but this 

 is immaterial. 



