Cbe Psytbic nature of Bird $m* 



BY MRS. MARY L. RANN. 

 Paper read before the Third Congress of the I. O. A. 



JT is a question if Mr Peck takes himself seriously in "The Psychic 

 ■^^nature of bird song," or expects others to, as his closing paragrapn 

 contains the following : "The subject will doubtless admit of infinite" re- 

 search and present opportunities for many interesting discoveries, I 

 therefore beg leave to present a few thoughts on the other side. We must 

 first admit that from the elusiveness of the subjects, that no standpoint, 

 either scientific or not scientific, is likely to settle the varying opinions en- 

 tertained. Mr. Peck feels his way carefully, though taking a scientific 

 standpoint, admitting thereby that science has its limitations. It is quite 

 probable that the unfortunate classification of birds may have swaged his 

 mind, for who could endorse a bird with soul qualities under the reptilian 

 stigma? We are told by Leonherd Stijneger that the classification of 

 birds between the reptiles and the mammals, does not indicate any inter- 

 mediate position in nature, but is simply due to our inability of express- 

 ing their exact position on a flat sheet of paper, but from this classified 

 position they are far removed from the ancestral stock. Now common 

 sense would say we had better give them the exact position due them as 

 far and away removed from either reptiles and mammals. When we see 

 birds bribe a snake by punching out its eyes and stand guard till it is 

 dead, we are convinced there is an enmity between their ancestry and 

 their present position in evidence for our instruction at least. We think 

 of birds and their endowments as the most wonderful in animal life. The 

 dullest clod is not insensible to their songs. It strikes the soul of the lis- 

 tener with psychic force, as coming from and to that invisable realm 

 which is the actual and real within us. There is rythmic humming akin 

 to human song. Why does a bird not express joy, gladness and even exta- 

 cy of soul emotions, as in man? Luckily for us who believe that it does, 

 cold science cannot prove that it is no more than automatic overflow from 

 some psychical excitement. We say a bird expresses joy when It sings 

 because it sings, and it is my observation that few birds sing under an ap- 

 parently excited condition. We might say as much perhaps of the Wren, 

 but of ordinary birds we often see extreme dehberation. The meadow 

 lark rises to a fence post, presses his feathers and when the spirit moves, 

 .sings. So with the Brown Thrush, and one's patience is sometimes 

 tried before he begins, even in nesting time. The Lark Buntings feed 

 and sing through th<i fields, while the Prairie Lark sings, like the Wren, 



