"possum can circumvent even Uncle highly developed and serviceable tactile 

 Remus himself by his crafty diplomacy, organs will they rank high or low in the 

 And what is it that makes all the differ- intellectual hierarchy of nature. It may 

 ence between this 'cute marsupial and his well be asked how all this concerns the 

 backward Australian cousins ? It is the family of parrots. In the first place, any- 

 possession of a prehensile hand and tail, body who has ever kept a parrot or a 

 Therein lies the whole secret. The opos- macaw in slavery is well aware that in no 

 sum's hind foot has a genuine apposable other birds do the claws so closely resem- 

 thumb ; and he also uses his tail in climb- ble a human or simian hand, not indeed 

 ing as a supernumerary hand, almost as in outer form or appearance, but in ap- 

 much as do any of the monkeys. He posability of the thumbs and in perfec- 

 often suspends himself by it, like an ac- tion of grasping power. The toes upon 

 robat, swings his body to and fro to ob- each foot are arranged in opposite pairs 

 tain speed, then lets go suddenly, and two turning in front and two backward, 

 flies away to a distant branch, which he which gives all parrots their peculiar 

 clutches by means of his hand-like hind firmness in clinging on a perch or on the 

 foot. If the toes make a mistake, he can branch of a tree with one foot only, while 

 recover his position by the use of his pre- they extend the other to grasp a fruit or 

 hensile tail. The result is that the opos- to clutch at any object they desire to pos 

 sum, being able to form for himself clear sess. This peculiarity, it must be admit- 

 and accurate conceptions of the real ted, is not confined to the parrots, for they 

 shapes and relations of things by these share the division of the foot into two 

 two distinct grasping organs, has ac- thumbs and two fingers with a large 

 quired an unusual amount of general in- group of allied birds, called, in the ex- 

 telligence. And further, in the keen com- act language of technical ornithology, 

 petition for life, he has been forced to de- the Scansorial Picarians, and more gen- 

 velop an amount of cunning which leaves erally known by their several names of 

 his Australian poor relations far behind cockatoos, toucans and wood-peckers, 

 in the Middle Ages of psychological evo- All the members of this great group, of 

 lution. which the parrots proper are only the 

 At the risk of appearing to forsake my most advanced and developed family, 

 ostensible subject altogether, I must possess the same arrangement of the 

 pause for a moment to answer a very ob- digits into front-toes and back-toes, and 

 vious objection to my argument. How in none is the power of grasping an object 

 about the dog- and the horse ? They have all round so completely developed and 

 no prehensile organ, and yet they are ad- so full of intellectual consequences, 

 mitted to be the most intelligent of all All the Scansorial Picarians are essen- 

 quadrupeds. The cleverness of the horse tially tree-haunters ; and the tree-haunt- 

 and the dog, however, is acquired, not ing and climbing habit seems specially 

 original. It has arisen in the course of favorable to the growth of intellect, 

 long and hereditary association with man, Monkeys, squirrels, opossums, wild cats, 

 the cleverest and most serviceable indi- are all of them climbers, and all of them, 

 viduals having been deliberately selected in the act of climbing, jumping, and bal- 

 from generation to generation as dams ancing themselves on boughs, gain such 

 and sires to breed from. We cannot fair- an accurate idea of geometrical figures, 

 ly compare these artificial human pro- distance, perspective and the true nature 

 ducts with wild races whose intelligence is of space-relations, as could hardly be ac- 

 entirely self-evolved. In addition, the quired in any other way. In a few words, 

 horse has, to a slight extent, a prehensile they thoroughly understand the tactual 

 organ in his mobile and sensitive lip, realities that answer to and underlie each 

 which he uses like an undeveloped or ru- visible appearance. This is, in my opin- 

 dimentary proboscis with which he can ion, one of the substrata of all intelli- 

 feel things all over. We may conclude, gence; and the monkeys, possessing it 

 I believe, that touch is "the mother- more profoundly than any other animals, 

 tongue of the senses ;" and that in pro- except man, have accordingly reached a 

 portion as animals have or have not very high place in" the competitive ex- 



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