COMMISSION OF ERROR 513 



the latter than to the former sense. The Mexican parrot, on 

 the other hand, is deceived only when it is freshly caught or 

 inexperienced (Houzeau). 



The kitten plays with its own mirrored image. But the 

 result is very different in some other animals. Immediate 

 and intense pugnacity is more frequently developed. It was 

 so, for instance, in the case of a common Australian parrot, 

 into whose cage I caused to be introduced, for experimental 

 purposes, a small hand-mirror, while a nut was given it to 

 eat. The effect was immediate. There was no wonder or 

 hesitancy, no investigation or fear, no curiosity, no desire for 

 companionship. The animal at once violently and viciously 

 assaulted its own image, and, failing to produce any injury 

 on the smooth, hard surface of the glass, and on the mirrored 

 image that reflected all its own violence in look and action, it 

 seized the edge of the mirror with its bill, attempting to 

 break it. 



The fighting fish of Siam, too, is so irritable in temper 

 that it ' will even butt against its own shadow in a looking- 

 glass. 5 The sight of this supposed other individual creates 

 as much excitement and pugnacity as the presence of a real 

 opponent would do (Baird). The goat does the same thing 

 butts at its own mirrored image ( ' Percy Anecdotes J ). 



The Elizabethan poet, Chapman, speaks of elephants 

 shunning 



clear springs 



Lest they behold their own deformities 

 And start at their grim shadows. 



On the other hand, the mirror is unquestionably used by 

 other animals, as it is by women, for the purposes of self- 

 admiration, though even in such cases there is always a 

 danger of the animal's forgetting if it ever realised that 

 it is looking only at itself, and of its suffering itself to be 

 tormented with the pangs of jealousy of an imaginary rival. 

 Thus a siskin belonging to a friend is fond of looking at 

 itself in a mirror, as so many other animals obviously are, 

 peering, however, behind and over the mirror, apparently in 

 order to see its supposed neighbour. But at last it loses 

 temper, and fights its alter ego as the Australian parrot did. 



