CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE MENTAL CAPACITIES AND POWERS OF HIGHER BRUTE? 



IN a previous chapter some account has been given of 

 the instinctive and occasional actions of the higher Social 

 Insects, with the effect of disclosing the extremely routine 

 nature of their operations ; these being carried on under 

 the guidance perhaps of one, and rarely of more than two, 

 really potential Sense Endowments. The power shown by 

 these organisms of adapting their actions to new condi- 

 tions with which they were brought face to face, was found 

 to be very slight and almost wanting. 



Reference has also been made to the instincts of Birds, 

 to the wider range of mental phenomena displayed by 

 these animals, as well as to their greater power of adapt- 

 ing their actions to the exigencies of new conditions. 

 The nervous system of Birds is, however, much more 

 highly developed than that of Insects, as is evidenced 

 more especially by their possession of large Cerebral Lobes 

 for the correlation of sensorial impressions. Birds are, 

 moreover, commonly guided by three highly acute Sense 

 Endowments instead of two, in addition to others of minor 

 importance. 



Our consideration of the actions of Birds afforded good 

 warrant for the inference that in them the germs, or some- 

 times rather more than the germs, of higher mental 

 manifestations may become nascent in the form of rudi- 



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