160 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



the bird's attention before it sees the animal. THiis cer- 

 tainly tallies with some results of my experiments with 

 pictures of animals. 



When I related some years ago the incident of a bird 

 being terribly frightened at a chromo of a cat, the ques- 

 tion was asked, Might not the fright have been due to 

 some other cause ? It certainly was not then ; but I have 

 since repeated my experiments of this character, and with 

 such results as to leave the whole matter still an open 

 question, for the evidence, however strongly it pointed in 

 one direction, was after all, circumstantial. An antici- 

 pated effect was, often produced, it is true, but how far 

 correctly were the actions of the animal interpreted ? 

 This, I fear, we shall never be able to ascertain. 



Some time after I had made the first series of experi- 

 ments with life-like chromos which resulted in showing 

 that certain birds mistook the pictures for living animals, 

 I happened to recall what I had read of the peculiar con- 

 dition oif certain low races of mankind, who are unable, as 

 a rule, " to realize the most vivid artistic representations," 

 and it seemed very strange that birds should have a real- 

 izing power in any direction greater than that of certain 

 species of men ; the more so, when it is so often said that 

 human and animal intelligence differs in degree rather than 

 in kind. But this appears not always to hold good. It is 

 on record that " on being shown a large colored engraving 

 of an aboriginal New Hollander, one declared it to be a 

 ship, another a kangaroo, and so on ; not one of a dozen 

 identifying the portrait as having any connection with 

 himself." Few birds would be as stupid as this implies. 

 If a picture is recognized at all, it is correctly recognized. 



The chromo of a cat that was so effective was not a 

 square bit of card-board upon which the animal was de- 

 picted, but the accurately outlined figure only, and so 

 without any confusing fore or back ground to dim the 



