MENTAL QUALITIES. 405 



birds appears to be in many cases prolonged and tedious, so it 

 occasionally happens that certain males and females do not suc- 

 ceed during the proper season, in exciting each other's love, and 

 consequently do not pair? This suspicion will appear somewhat 

 less improbable after we have seen what strong antipathies and 

 preferences female birds occasionally evince towards particular 

 males. 



Mental Qualities of Birds, and their Taste for the Beautiful. — 

 Before we further discuss the question whether the females select 

 the more attractive males or accept the first whom they may en- 

 counter, it will be advisable briefly to consider the mental powers 

 of birds. Their reason is generally, and perhaps Justly, ranked as 

 low; yet some facts could be given' leading to an opposite conclu- 

 sion. Low powers of reasoning, however, are compatible, as we 

 see with mankind, with strong affections, acute perception, and a 

 taste for the beautiful; and it is with these latter qualities that 

 we are here concerned. It has often been said that parrots be- 

 come so deeply attached to each other that when one dies the 

 other pines for a long time; but Mr. Jenner Weir thinks that with 

 most birds the strength of their affection has been much exag- 

 gerated. Nevertheless when one of a pair in a state of nature has 

 been shot, the survivor has been heard for days afterwards utter- 

 ing a plaintive call; and Mr. St. John gives various facts proving 

 the attachment of mated birds." Mr. Bennett relates" that in 

 China after a drake of the beautiful mandarin Teal had been 

 stolen, the duck remained disconsolate, though sedulously courted 

 by another mandarin drake, who displayed before her all his 

 charms. After an interval of three weeks the stolen drake was 

 recovered, and instantly the pair recognized each other with ex- 

 treme joy. On the other hand starlings, as we have seen, may be 

 consoled thrice in the same day for the loss of their mates. Pig- 

 eons have such excellent local memories, that they have been 

 known to return to their former homes after an interval of nine 



' I am indebted to Prof. Newton for the following passage from Mr. 

 Adam's 'Travels of a Naturalist,' 1870, p. 278. Speaking of Japanese 

 nut-hatches in confinement he says'. "Instead of the more yielding 

 "fruit of the yew, which is the usual food of the nut-hatch of Japan, 

 "at one time I substituted hard hazel-nuts. As the bird was unable 

 "to crack them, he placed them one by one in his water-glass, evi- 

 "dently with the notion that they would in time become softer— an 

 "interesting proof of intelligence on the part of these birds." 



w 'A Tour in Sutherlandshire,' vol. i. 1849, p. 185. Dr. Buller says 

 ('Birds of New Zealand,' 1S72, p. 56) that a male King Lory was killed: 

 and the female "fretted and moped, refused her food, and died of a 

 "broken heart." 



" 'Wanderings in New South Wales,' vol. u. 1834, p. 62. 



27 



