Chap. XIV. 
MENTAL QUALITIES. 
109 
recognised their former masters after an interval of 
some months. Pigeons have such excellent local me- 
mories that they have been known to return to their 
former homes after an interval of nine months, vet, as 
I hear from Mr. Harrison Weir, if a pair which would 
naturally remain mated for life be separated for a few 
weeks during the winter and matched with other birds, 
the two, when brought together again, rarely, if ever, 
recognise each other. 
Birds sometimes exhibit benevolent feelings; they 
will feed the deserted young even of distinct species, 
but this perhaps ought to be considered as a mistaken 
instinct. They will also feed, as shewn in an earlier 
part of this work, adult birds of their own species 
which have become blind. Mr. Buxton gives a curious 
account of a parrot which took care of a frost-bitten and 
crippled bird of a distinct species, cleansed her feathers 
and defended her from the attacks of the other parrots 
which roamed freely about his garden. It is a still 
more curious fact that these birds apparently evince 
some sympathy for the pleasures of their fellows. When 
a pair of cockatoos made a nest in an acacia tree, it 
was ridiculous to see the extravagant interest taken 
‘^in the matter by the others of the same species.” 
These parrots, also, evinced unbounded curiosity, and 
clearly had the idea of property and possession.” 
Birds possess acute powers of observation. Every 
mated bird, of course, recognises its fellow. Audubon 
states that with the mocking-thrushes of the United 
States {Mimus jpolyglottus) a certain number remain all 
the year round in Louisiana, whilst the others migrate 
to the Eastern States; these latter, on their return, 
Acclimatization of Parrots/ by C. Buxton, M.P. ‘Annals and 
Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ Nov. 1868, p. 381. 
