332 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



their only possession. Then, again, how is it that birds know 

 when their eggs have been touched, but still remain in the nest ? 

 Here, it seems to me, that the something we term " intuition " 

 has been brought to bear. As is well known, the Bower-Birds 

 (Ptilonorhynchinte) decorate their "playgrounds" and bowers 

 with all manner of objects ; and some species have a penchant 

 for leaves, and those of a special kind. An interesting trick was 

 played on one of these birds a short time since in a part of 

 Queensland. All the leaves were removed from the playground, 

 and others closely resembling but of a different variety put in their 

 stead, but on returning shortly afterwards it was found that the 

 bird had thrown out all the leaves put there, replacing them with 

 others of its own choosing. There was no " instinct " about 

 that ; it was " intelligence " pure and simple ; and it is marvellous 

 to think that a mere bird could have distinguished between the 

 leaves put down and those placed by human agency. The 

 question arises : did the bird really know that its playground had 

 been tampered with, or was the knowledge merely automatic ; 

 did it feel (without knowing why) that something was amiss, 

 and righted it without intelligently appreciating the alteration ? 

 I cannot answer this, but leave the question to some one more 

 fitted to reply. 



I will now refer to an occurrence in which both "instinct" and 

 " intelligence " were apparently at fault. In part iv. vol. ii. of the 

 'Emu' (the official organ of the Australasian Ornithologists' 

 Union) there appears a note from a Queensland correspondent 

 on an up-country station, relating to a Black and White Fantail 

 (Rhipidura tricolor) that had been fighting its own shadow in a 

 window for the past fourteen months, with scarcely a break, from 

 morning to night. Now, if this bird had any powers of reasoning, 

 should it not long ago have found out the futility of continuing 

 to fly against the window-glass ? Should not its deductive 

 faculties (however feeble) have shown it the uselessness of 

 wasting time and strength in fighting a shadow ? But at the 

 same time should not its " instinct " (we readily admit it 

 being possessed by birds) have told it of its error ? I am of 

 opinion it should have instinctively become aware of its foolish 

 action. From the above we get two negatives : first, want of 

 reasoning power (with which we do not feel inclined to credit 



