198 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



they know nothing about anything ! And that is true 

 with only small exception about even the highest animals 

 until we come to man. Some of the higher animals 

 have a brief and fleeting " consciousness " of what they 

 are doing, and some of the hairy quadrupeds nearest to 

 man have the power of "recollecting"; that is to say, 

 have in a small degree conscious memory, and actually 

 do reason and make use of their memory of their own 

 individual experience to a very small and limited degree. 



It is only in man that the power of reasoning the 

 conscious use of memory, of deciding on this or that 

 course of action by a conscious appeal to the record 

 of the individual's experience inscribed in the substance 

 of the brain becomes a regular and constant procedure. 

 And in the lowest races of man as, for instance, the 

 Australian " black fellows " this power is much less 

 developed than in higher races, owing to the feebleness 

 of their memory. Just as a little child or an old man 

 recognizes the fact that his memory is bad, so does the 

 Australian native confess to the white man that he 

 cannot remember, and marvels at the memory of the 

 white man, who, he says, can see both what is behind 

 and what is to come. 



" Displays " are often made by birds which have no 

 very brilliant colours. The ruff a bird of agreeable 

 but sombre plumage spreads out a ruff of feathers 

 which grows round his neck in the breeding season 

 and stands in a prominent position alone on the open 

 ground with his head facing downwards and his long 

 beak nearly touching the ground. These birds are to 

 be seen behaving in this way at the Zoological Gardens 

 in London. When thus posed they have a comical 

 appearance of being absorbed in profound thought. 



