128 Bird -Lore 



own eggs, as yet unhatched; a Loon which voluntaril}^ risked his life tO' 

 free a Pied -billed Grebe from a nearly fatal ice -trap; and a Great Crowned 

 Pigeon which assumed the care of and sheltered a nestling Ring Dove 

 deserted by its parents. 



Another aspect of the mental processes of birds shows us examples of 

 revenge being taken after long and patient waiting for a favorable op- 

 portunity, while, on the other hand. Crows have been known again and 

 again to sit in judgment upon one of their number, and to sentence and 

 punish it with death. 



The language of birds is most complex, and all, from the marvelous 

 song of the Nightingale and the imitative powers of the Mocking-bird, to 

 the many moods and feelings reflected in the apparently meaningless 

 chirps of our city Sparrows, tell of mental powers striving for expression. 



In man, the various emotions depend upon language and the range of 

 expression of the face for their outward demonstration, and it is interest- 

 ing to compare with this the state of affairs among birds. These crea- 

 tures, handicapped by a vocal language very inferior to our own, and 

 faces, for the most part sheathed, like those of insects, in expressionless- 

 masks of horn, yet are able by movements of their feathers, limbs, and 

 other portions of the body, to express a wide range of emotions, and tO' 

 clearly communicate even delicate shades of meaning. 



Interrupting, for a moment, the mention of these finer qualities which 

 show the high mental position of birds, it is desirable to emphasize a 

 factor common to all animals, but which in birds is very important, and 

 developed to a remarkable degree — that of extreme individuality. It is 

 to this plasticity or wide variation on the already high level of knowledge, 

 or "platform of determination," as Baldwin happily terms it, that gives to 

 birds the numerous chances for new accidental opportunities, as we may 

 call them — stepping-stones on the road of deduction, to some new and 

 higher expression of psychic power. Every-day accidents in the search 

 for food may be instantly seized upon by the quick perception of birds. 

 and turned to good account. 



Birds had early learned to take clams or muscles in their beaks or claws 

 at low tide, and carry them out of the reach of the water, so that at the 

 death of the mollusk the relaxation of the adductor muscle would permit 

 the shell to spring open and afford easy access to the inmate. Probably 

 it needed only the accidental dropping of a few shells on the hard rocks, 

 and a taste of the appetizing morsels witnin, to hx the habit which, by 

 imitation, has spread so widely among birds at the present day. To 

 how trivial an accident might the beginnings, the psychic anlaga, of many 

 modern cosmopolitan traits of birds be traced if we could but read the 

 past clearly ! 



Play and courtship — while they go hand-in-hand, so to speak — afford. 



