1877.] Glimpses of Mind in Birds. 285 
This poor fellow for the greater part of one summer haunted a 
row of currant bushes, in a very melancholy mood the while, 
and when seen by other cat-birds, they would immediately give 
it chase. The persecuted bird was readily recognized by hav- 
ing a single snow-white feather in its tail, which was otherwise 
of normal size and color. It is not to be supposed that albinism 
which extended only to one feather could have been the cause of 
this ostracism, and we refer the cause to the mental state of the 
bird, and that being recognized as weaker and perhaps otherwise 
unnatural, they would have killed it had it not been able to es- 
cape their attacks by taking refuge in dense foliage close to the 
ground. Its movements indicated physical health, its loneliness 
and inability — shall we say ? — to please its fellows, indicated 
mental ill health, that is, insanity. 
It is scarcely necessary, and space forbids our going further 
into details in the elaboration of such phases of bird life as, to 
human comprehension, are apparently identical with the allied 
acts in man ; and, indeed, if it can be shown that under any one 
circumstance a bird thinks, it as satisfactorily determines that 
the creature has a thought-producing brain, as though we trace 
his mental powers from the nest to the close of adult life. Have 
we not more than one such circumstance here narrated, as a 
“proof that birds possess a faculty indistinguishable, so far as it 
goes, from human reason” ? When noting the circumstances of 
limited migrations, we saw that it was not a blind movement on 
the part of each individual, but the influence being alike recog- 
nized by all, they congregated and departed with a full knowl- 
edge of whither they were going, this predetermination being 
shown by the character of their movements while journeying. 
The validity of the opinion that birds fully comprehend and at- 
tach definite meanings to their range of utterances we endeav- 
ored to show in the flocking of allied species and genera, in- 
stead of the promiscuous assembling of birds of widely differing 
types. Their love of company was pointed out as bearing, too, 
upon the subject of language as man understands it, being also 
an attribute of birds, this association extending beyond the du- 
ration of nidification, and not limited to single pairs, but the in- 
dividuals of each species residing in considerable areas. ‘This 
love of the company of their own kind is not a mute associa- 
tion, but marked by an extensive range of vocal powers other 
than their songs proper, which bear the relation to language that 
“nging does to conversation in ourselves, and bear every indi- ` 
