CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OE BIRDS. *jS 



are only the external limits of the cerebral organs, each of 

 which is imagined by phrenologists to extend from the sur- 

 face to the very base of the brain ; yet we are told repeat- 

 edly, that the cause of the vast intellectual superiority en- 

 joyed by man over the lower animals, is the large size and 

 prominence of the convolutions on his brain, conjoined with 

 the great relative magnitude of his encephalon. " Perfec- 

 tion of function," says Mr. Lawrence, " is seen in connexion 

 with full development of nervous matter; deficiency, with 

 imperfect organization, and absolute negation of function, 

 with a corresponding chasm in the structure of the nervous 

 system ; and this is true, not only of the four great divi- 

 sions of the animal kingdom, but is equally so in each de- 

 partment,"* 



In accordance with the statements of phrenologists, we 

 would expect, in descending from quadrupeds to birds, to 

 find the mental faculties of the latter class developed in an 

 infinitely less degree than in the mammalia. But this is 

 not the case : for although we find the docility of the dog 

 and the elephant unrivalled among birds, yet, taken in 

 mass, we do not find the diversity in the comparative sa- 

 gacity of the two classes of animals at all proportionate to 

 the wide difference in the development of the cerebral mass. 

 To prove that such is not a mere supposition, let us instance 

 the docility of the falcon, the raven, the carrier pigeon, and 

 the parrot, all of which, in complication of cerebral struc- 

 ture, fall far short of the most simple brain we find among 

 the mammalia. Is a squirrel more sagacious than a spar- 

 row ? or does a cat shew more cunning than a magpie ? Is 



* See Phrenological Journal, vol. iv. p. 481. 



