Morality in Birds.



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These Tanagers are very fine showy birds of the size of a

lark, with long tails. Their general colouring may be roughly

compared with that of a Magpie, and the gloss on their heads and

neck is most beautiful, with the gleaming yellow eyes showing

conspicuously against the blue-black of the surrounding feathers.

It is a rare thing to obtain a true pair, so that it is much to be

hoped their next efforts at reproducing their kind will be suc¬

cessful. It would in part atone for the anxiety one has gone

through, and the losses one has suffered.



MORALITY IN BIRDS.


By Dr. A. G. Butler.


As we understand it, I believe birds are wholly deficient

in moral sense: they murder one another for the pure joy of

showing their power; and the screams of their victims, I verily

believe, give them pleasure ; they are utterly reckless as regards

the choice of mates, with one exception ; and that, so far as my

experience has shown me, is a peculiarity confined to the female

sex. At the same time, as is well known, many birds mate for

life and are faithful to their partners.


Touching the choice of mates, a male bird will often

voluntarily ignore the presence of females of his own species,

and select a partner belonging to another species: it is owing

to this fact that one sometimes meets with wild hybrids such as

those between the Linnet and Greenfinch, which are not rare ;

and it is well-known that most of the hybrids produced in

aviaries between foreign finches are the result of voluntary

selection on the part of the parents. When two species are

put together, with a view to breeding hybrids, in a large flight-

cage, the result is usually a disappointment. I know, because I

have tried it repeatedly and have hardly ever been successful

excepting when the depraved domesticated Canary has been the

mother.


When no examples of the same species are present, male

birds will sometimes attempt to mate with hens of different

families and even orders, as I pointed out many years ago in the

case of a Rosella Parrakeet which tried most earnestly to win



