280 Glimpses of Mind in Birds. [May, 
power has been evolved for the same ends and largely meets the 
same requirements that the power of language accomplishes for 
man. 
Let us now view bird life from another stand-point. There are 
not a few indications to show that birds are not victims of pre- 
destination, such as some worthy people are unhappily deluded 
into supposing themselves to be, but, being quite free to choose, 
exercise not a little forethought, especially in spring, in prede- 
termining their movements, in part, during the coming season. 
How else, for instance, can we explain such a fact as the aban- 
donment of a partly constructed nest and rebuilding elsewhere, 
usually on the same tree? I have so closely watched orioles while 
building, that I am confident that a nest nearly finished was aban- 
doned not from experience of its being of too easy access to ene- 
mies, but because subsequent thought suggested the possibility of 
such an occurrence, and therefore the change of position was de- 
cided upon. Such instances are quite common; and strangely 
enough these abandoned nests are not utilized in the manufact- 
ure of another, but are left, I believe, as a blind to the ene- 
mies, which now are happily but few, of this particular bird. In 
one case the delicate branches of a weeping-willow being found 
too slight for the weight of the nest when- occupied, another 
branch some few inches distant — as nearly as I could determine, 
about a foot — was brought into use, as an additional support, by 
carefully interweaving a long string with the body of the nest, 
and then carrying it up and attaching it by a number of turns 
and a knot to the branch above. Thus secured, the nest sus- 
tained the weight of the young when fully grown and both the 
parent birds. The little warbling fly-catchers that build a semi- 
pensile nest in the fork of delicate twigs have been known to do 
precisely the same thing, especially when the cow-pen bird 
(Molothrus pecoris) burdens them with an egg that when 
hatched taxes severely the strength of their slightly built nest. 
Here we have forethought, for while the nest, in the case of the 
orioles, was sufficiently secure for the proper care of the eggs, 
and would sustain the additional weight of one bird, they knew 
that when the young were well grown and required the care of 
both parents in feeding them, then the nest must needs be 
stronger than they had originally made it. Can we consider 1t 
probable that the same idea of future insecurity occurred to both 
parent birds simultaneously? Yet they worked together in the 
addition made to it. Rather the idea, occurring to one, was come 
