FEERUGINOUS THRUSH. 
109 
“ break their wings, he would lay them down, then examine if 
“ they had a sting, and with his bill squeeze the abdomen to 
“ clear it of the reservoir of poison, before he would swallow 
“ his prey. When in his cage, being very fond of dry crusts of 
“ bread, if upon trial the corners of the crumbs were too hard 
and sharp for his throat, he would throw them up, carry and 
“ put them in his water-dish to soften; then take them out and 
“ swallow them. Many other remarkable circumstances might 
“ be mentioned that would fully demonstrate faculties of mind; 
“ not only innate, but acquired ideas (derived from necessity in 
“ a state of domestication) which we call understanding and 
“ knowledge. We see that this bird could associate those ideas, 
“ arrange and apply them in a rational manner, according to 
“ circumstances. For instance, if he knew that it was the hard 
“ sharp corners of the crumb of bread that hurt his gullet, and 
“prevented him from swallowing it, and that water would soft- 
“ en and render it easy to be swallowed, this knowledge must 
“ be acquired by observation and experience; or some other 
“ bird taught him. Here the bird perceived by the effect the 
“ cause, and then took the quickest, the most effectual, and 
“agreeable method to remove that cause. What could the wisest 
“ man have done better? Call it reason, or instinct, it is the same 
“ that a sensible man would have done in this case. 
“ After the same manner this bird reasoned with respect to 
“the wasps. He found, by experience and observation, that the 
“first he attempted to swallow hurt his throat, and gave him 
“ extreme pain; and upon examination observed that the extre- 
“ mity of the abdomen was armed with a poisonous sting; and 
“ after this discovery, never attempted to swallow a wasp until 
<‘he first pinched his abdomen to the extremity, forcing out 
“ the sting with the receptacle of poison.” 
It is certainly a circumstance highly honourable to the charac- 
ter of birds, and corroborative of the foregoing sentiments, that 
those who have paid the most minute attention to their manners 
are uniformly their advocates and admirers. “ He must,” said 
a gentleman to me the other day, when speaking of another per- 
