6440 



Reason and Instinct. 



and without question, on the whole, very much more decisively 

 and distinctly than in any of the lower classes. Indeed, so remarkably 

 is the truth of this statement borne in upon the observer, that we feel 

 ourselves constrained to assent to the opinion expressed by a great 

 physiological writer, that the bird is indeed the creature that of all 

 others acts under the impulses of Instinct. And when we contemplate 

 the wondrous skill with which the tiny architect constructs its first 

 nest, or the marvellous power of self-guidance with which it wings its 

 way, for hundreds on hundreds of untracked miles, or the readiness 

 and decision and perfect mastery of its limbs with which the young 

 water-bird, for instance, takes to its destined element, when yet but an 

 hour or two old, or the wonderful discernment by which others go to 

 their food, — their means of information and discovery being perfectly 

 beyond the reach of any powers of investigation belonging to man, — 

 or any other of the wonderful Instinct-prompted achievements of mem- 

 bers of this class, — bearing in mind the while that oftentimes several 

 of these marvellous powers are centred in one and the same individual, 

 — it does seem difficult to attempt to gainsay the opinion we have just 

 now quoted. 



But, however marvellous the Instincts of the bird, the Intelligence 

 of this class as a whole is, though less conspicuous, still a very real 

 and important element in its character and qualities. The docility of 

 many of even the wildest and fiercest members of the family ; the re- 

 markable adaptation of numbers of others to the influences of domes- 

 tication ; the strong personal attachments formed by hundreds and 

 thousands, of endless varieties, to their owners or their companions, 

 feathered or quadruped ; the innumerable instances of cleverness, 

 reasoning (within certain limits), judgment, comparison, persevering 

 labour for a given end, combination to effect a desired object and the 

 like, — all show the bird to be as much beyond the reptile in intelli- 

 gence or rationality, as the latter is above the classes beneath that to 

 which itself belongs. 



The last step, before that which brings us to Man, places us among 

 the Mammalia : here we find a remarkable development, — remarkable 

 for its progressiveness as well as for its ultimate magnitude, — as we 

 ascend the scale from the Marsupialia to the Quadrumana. The true 

 brain from being but little in advance, in point of organization and 

 relative magnitude, over that of the bird, becomes at last inferior, in 

 proportionate size and development, only to that of man himself, while 

 those portions of the encephalic mass which are appropriated to the 

 several instincts, though maintaining positively some sort of relation to 



