70 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



elders as he left them. The nest now was, of course, 

 empty. 



I see no reason why this should be doubted. I have 

 knowledge of many incidents quite similar to the above, 

 and were dogs or even cats the heroes, such anecdotes, 

 when narrated, would create but little surprise. 



There seems to be a very general impression that in- 

 telligence among animals increases as they ascend the 

 scale of anatomical structure. I cannot think so. Years 

 of familiarity with a multitude of varied forms of life, 

 lower than mammals or than birds even, have led me to 

 conclude that in the more simply organized brains may 

 be localized intelligences that outrank those of struct- 

 urally higher animals. The element of danger in a 

 creature's environment is one great stimulus to a de- 

 velopment of mother-wit, and those that, in spite of a 

 multiplicity of enemies, continue to hold their own, ex- 

 hibit far more frequent evidence of effective brain-power 

 than do such as by brute force, or exceptional facility in 

 escaping attack, maintain their places among us. 



I should not expect to find marked evidence of fore- 

 thought among opossums or even squirrels, but that a 

 comparatively helpless little warbler should display such 

 wisdom does not surprise me, although the danger threat- 

 ened its young and not itself. 



My neighbor's story of the little warblers recalled the 

 fate of a brood of king-rails in my mucky meadow. 

 The tangled white-joint grass was being cut, and stead- 

 ily over the marshy stretch the mower forced his way. 

 Not a bird there but must have heard the meaning 

 "swish" of the deadly blade, if it did not divine what 



