108 
SEXUAL SELECTION : BIRDS. 
Pakt II. 
strong antipathies and preferences female birds occa- 
sionally evince towards particular males. 
Mental Qualities of Birds, and their taste for the 
heautifid . — Before we discuss any further the question 
whether the females select the more attractive males 
or accept the first whom tliey may encounter, it will be 
advisable briefly to consider the mental powers of birds. 
Their reason is generally, and perhaps justly, ranked 
as low ; yet some facts could be given ^ leading to an 
opposite conclusion. Low powers of reasoning, how- 
ever, are compatible, as we see with mankind, with 
strong affections, acute perception, and a taste for the 
beautiful ; and it is with these latter qualities that we 
are here concerned. It has often been said that parrots 
become so deeply attached to each other that when 
one dies the other for a long time pines ; but Mr. 
Jenner Weir thinks that with most birds the strength 
of their affection has been much exaggerated. Never- 
theless when one of a pair in a state of nature has 
been shot, the survivor has been heard for days after- 
wards uttering a plaintive call; and Mr. St. John 
gives various facts proving the attachment of mated 
birds. Starlings, however, as we have seen, may be 
consoled thrice in the same day for the loss of their 
mates. In the Zoological Gardens parrots have clearly 
individuals on the same errand of mercy. One of these he killed ; 
the other he also shot, but could not find. No more came on the like 
fruitless errand.’’ 
^ For instance, Mr. Yarrell states (‘Hist. British Birds,’ vol. iii. 1845, 
p. 585) that a gull was not able to swallow a small bird which had been 
given to it. The gull “ paused for a moment, and then, as if suddenly 
recollecting himself, ran off at full speed to a pan of water, shook the 
“ bird about in it until well soaked, and immediately gulped it down. 
“ Since that time he invariably has had recourse to the same expedient 
in similar cases.” 
‘A Tour in Sutherlandshire,’ vol. i. 1849, p. 185. 
