530 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



Mental Qualities of Birds, and their Taste for the BeauC%- 

 ful. — Before we further discuss the question whether the 

 females select the more attractive males or accept the first 

 whom they may eDcounter, it will be advisable briefly to 

 coQsider the mental powers of birds. Their reason is gen- 

 erally, and perhaps justly, ranked as low; yet some facts 

 could be given" leading to an opposite conclusion. 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 become 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 affec- 

 tion has been much exaggerated. Nevertheless, when one 

 of a pair in a state of nature has been shot, the survivor 

 has been heard for days afterward uttering 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 extreme joy. On the other hand, starlings, as we have 

 seen, may be consoled thrice in the same day for the loss of 

 their mates. Pigeons have such excellent local memories, 

 that they have been known to return to their former homes 



' I am indebted to Prof. Newtou for the following passage from Mr. Adam's 

 "Travels of a Naturalist," IStO, p. 218. 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, evidently with the notion that they would in time become 

 softer — an interesting proof of intelfigence on the part of these birds." 



10 "i Tour in Sutherlandshire," vol. i., 1849, p. 185. Dr. Buller says 

 ("Birds of New Zealand," 1872, 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. 



