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Mr. C. William Beebe,



Another aspect of the mental processes of birds shows us

examples of revenge being taken after long and patient waiting

for a favourable opportunity, 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

marvellous 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 demon¬

stration, and it is interesting to compare with this the state of

affairs among birds. These creatures, 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 individiiality . It is 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 opfiorhinities, as we may

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

new and higher expression of psychic power. Every-day acci¬

dents 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 mussels 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 abductor 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 within, to fix the habit which, by



