CHAPTER II. 



Do Birds understand what they say ? Anecdotes in point 

 Sand-martins at Weybridge Swallows kitted ty Para- 

 sites Swan feeding Cygnets Cock-turkey as Nurse 

 Disposition of Egg-shells in Nests of Partridges, &c. 

 Eggs of White Pheasant of Himalayan ditto Hatching 

 by Pheasants and Hens compared Two /Species of Land 

 Lizards Large Lizard in Spain Estremadura Black 

 Vipei Fetidness of Common Snake Snake and Eel. 



TN" a pleasant article contributed to Frasers 

 Magazine in October, 1857, entitled "Jays 

 and Nutcrackers," are collected some anecdotes of 

 birds, with a view of proving that those brought 

 up in confinement, and taught to speak, in time 

 become acquainted with the meaning of the words 

 which they utter. Now whether such cases as 

 those referred to are merely the result of acci- 

 dental coincidence ; whether, having been taught 

 to associate certain words with certain actions, 

 it is only by rote and mechanically that birds are 

 led to repeat them at the appropriate times, as 



M 



