DOMESTICATED BIRDS 183 



sharpening a saw with a file. The poor bird would hearken 

 with great attention until he thought he had caught the note, 

 and then endeavor to reproduce it. As may be imagined, the 

 measure of his success was small. He was fully conscious of 

 his failure, and would beat himself about the cage in evident 

 chagrin, returning again and again to try the hopeless task. 



Wherever the vocal organs of caged birds permit them to 

 imitate human speech they are apt to devote a large part of 

 their labor to this task, paying little attention to other less 

 meaningful sounds. It appears to me that they perceive in a 

 way the sympathetic character of language and therefore take 

 a peculiar pleasure in copying it. It is hardly to be believed 

 that they ever get a sense of the connotative value of words, 

 but it is not to be doubted that they sometimes attain to a 

 certain appreciation of the denotation of simpler phrases. 

 In this task they do not exhibit as much sagacity as the dog, 

 a creature which learns to understand the purport of rather 

 complicated sentences. Nevertheless, their capacity for imitat- 

 ing speech is a fascinating peculiarity, one which has greatly 

 endeared them to bird fanciers. 



Those who have observed the talking birds have doubtless 

 noted the fact that their capacity for remembering and uttering 

 words varies greatly. I am inclined to think that in the same 

 species some individuals can do such tasks several times as 

 easily as others. If these speaking forms could be brought to 

 breed in captivity, and something like the selective care were 

 given to their development that has been devoted to the 

 varieties of pigeons, we might well expect to attain very 

 remarkable results. If anywhere in the animal world there is 

 a chance to open communication by means of speech with the 

 lower creatures, it should be here. 



