BIRDS AT PRAYERS. 325 



parison, or for judgment and decision, is necessarily an 

 act of reason. There are few domestic animals which do 

 not exercise reason constantly. Many wild animals are 

 very sharp reasoners." 



" Did you ever detect reason in a trout?" 



" Something very like it, but not so clearly indicated as 

 in land animals. I have frequently watched trout when 

 swimming in groups, as they often do in small lakes, and 

 where thirty or forty trout are leisurely moving around 

 near the shores, they generally have two or more guards, 

 or look-outs, swimming at a reasonable distance in ad- 

 vance, who give them warning of any visible danger. 

 This and other habits look like reason. But whether fish 

 have any means of communication with each other ex- 

 cept by sight, I confess I dare not say. I have sometimes 

 thought a trout had gone down stream before me and 



told the community to look out for an enemy. A 's 



birds yonder have beyond question means of exchanging 

 ideas." 



" You would think so if you saw them at prayers." 



Wha at ?" 



" Yes ; at prayers. It isn't any thing less. There are 

 birds of every country under the whole heavens, and with 

 voices as various as the languages of men, and you hear 

 what a wild concert of delight they keep up all day long. 

 But every day this entire group of birds assemble in si- 

 lence, and if it isn't a prayer-meeting I don't know what 

 it is. There is no forewarning that we can detect. While 

 they are all chattering, singing, playing here, there, and 

 every where, suddenly one of them, sometimes one and 

 sometimes another, utters a peculiar call, totally distinct 

 from his ordinary note. Whatever bird it is, the call is 

 much the same, and instantly every bird stops his play 



