x THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



In THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS and THE HU- 

 MAN SIDE OF TREES, it was shown that our plant 

 and vegetable friends not only have habits and at- 

 tributes that in many respects place them in the 

 category with man himself, but that they possess 

 faculties and powers which man can never hope to 

 attain. In the present volume it is proposed to 

 prove that our bird neighbours not only do prac- 

 tically everything that man does, but have been 

 doing things for thousands of years which it is 

 doubtful that he will ever do. And their unerring 

 judgment and knowledge of the mysterious and 

 trackless spaces of the air are still to man an un- 

 solved marvel! 



When, after being raised in a coop, and released 

 after a journey of three thousand miles in a closed 

 box, carrier-pigeons return to their starting-point 

 with unerring exactness, only a limited mind can 

 accept the explanation of "instinct" as adequate. 

 When a robin confined in a cage for seven years, 

 upon being set free flies fifteen miles to its former 

 home, one must recognise powers of marvellous 

 memory and intelligence, and even a power that 

 man does not comprehend, in the bird world. When 

 flocks of wild birds flee several days in advance of a 

 great storm, and ocean birds come inland for the 

 same reason, wonderful psychic understanding is 



