I3 8 THE TRIBES ON MY FRONTIER. 



But, in addition to all this, I am not afraid to put for- 

 ward the proposition that birds have really more intellect 

 than beasts. The most scientific way to settle the matter, 

 of course, would be by brain measurement, and I am 

 pretty sure that birds have proportionally larger heads 

 than any animals in existence except, perhaps, Scotch- 

 men ; but my opinion is founded only on ordinary obser- 

 vation and comparison. Taking the monkey, which I con- 

 sider to be the most intelligent mammal, and comparing it 

 with the parrot, which occupies a very similar place among 

 birds, what a difference there is! In spite of all the acute- 

 ness of our four-handed progenitor, who would hesitate to 

 give the palm for solid brain power to the parrot ? A 

 parrot commands your respect, because it makes you feel 

 that it has a satisfactory reason for everything it does. 

 Whether it is overturning its drinking-water, and peering 

 over the side of its cage to see if the cold douche has taken 

 effect on the head of the dog, or simply walking about 

 examining the multifarious scraps strewed on the floor of 

 its house, and pronouncing on their digestibility, or rasp- 

 ing away any accessible woodwork, its proceedings are 

 unmistakably the fruit of deliberate thought. Again, a 

 parrot never forgets its dignity, and is in that unlike the 



