INTRODUCTORY 19 



question, therefore, arises, How do birds build their 

 nest, and especially their first nest. To credit birds 

 with instinct which because it seems so self-evident is 

 taken to be matter of fact, is to admit that they possess 

 intellectual powers infinitely superior to those of man; 

 whilst the evidence that can be gathered on the subject 

 all tends to show that their intellectual powers are of 

 precisely the same kind as man's, but some of them, 

 of course, are much inferior in degree, whilst others 

 are unquestionably superior. Reason, comparatively 

 speaking, in birds can only be regarded as rudimen- 

 tary, though, as we have already seen, there is un- 

 doubted evidence of its existence. The faculties a 

 bird brings into play in nest building are probably 

 Imitation, to which we would assign the most im- 

 portant part, whilst the next most important faculty 

 of the mind is Memory , Reason and Hereditary Habit 

 playing the minor parts. All these powers are found 

 in man, but, with the exception of reason, in a much 

 less pronounced degree, especially in civilised man 

 in whom they have a tendency to become abortive 

 through disuse or non-employment. Therefore to 

 credit birds with such a marvellous power as blind 

 and infallible instinct is to place them on a vastly 

 higher plane of intelligence than man, nay more, 

 to allot to them a faculty which can only be 

 classed as superhuman. As we have already shown, 

 the evidence all tends to disprove the posses- 

 sion of such a power. Birds brought up in confine- 



