UPLAND GOOSE. 



SOME NOTES ON THE PSYCHOLOGY 

 OF BIRDS. 



By C. WILLIAM BEEBE, 



CURATOR OF BIRDS. 



EVEN a superficial study of the psychology of birds compels 

 1 us to attribute to them a highly developed intellectual and 

 emotional life. A few examples may make this more patent, and 

 I will mention only those which entail rather complex psychic 

 processes. Birds have remarkable memories. It is said a pigeon 

 will remember a person after many months, and a bullfinch has 

 been known to recognize a voice after a year's time. Birds often 

 dream, and frequently sing or chatter in their sleep. There are 

 few species of birds which do not show the emotions of love 

 and sympathy, and, what is a very rare trait among animals, 

 that sincerity of affection which causes many birds to mate for 

 life. Even in those species which pair for only a year, one of 

 the two will sometimes pine and die with grief at the loss of its 

 mate. 



Indeed, sympathy is the key-note in the growth of the higher 

 intellectual and social qualities which find their culmination in 

 man, and Professor Shaler is right when he attributes to birds 



