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COMPARATIVE PHRENOLOGY. 
shew its importance in explaining the philosophy of the habits and instincts of 
animals.— 3. However, il* should be remembered, that there are greater difficulties 
to contend with in the study of Comparative Phrenology, than when examining 
a number of human heads or skulls. Yet patient and careful observation will 
reward the inquirer for any trouble he may incur. He 'will have accurate and 
sound physiological data, and a definite vocabulary; and he will then not be 
obliged to use the ambiguous term instinct , to designate in animals all their 
feelings and propensities, as well as their various perceptive powers. He will 
not, therefore, confound actions which are impulsive or affective, with others 
which are discriminative and intelligent. Having obtained a correct knowledge 
of the attributes of animals, in connection with their cerebral organization, and 
the relative position of the groups of faculties, his task is both satisfactory and 
interesting. The social and domestic propensities are located, as in Man, in the 
occipital region; the prudential at the base, and the intellectual in the forehead. 
If we examine the crania of any one genus, it will soon be recognized that there 
is a certain general configuration, and when the departure from the standard is 
more or less great, we have positive and natural data for species and varieties. 
Warblers, for example, have all rounded foreheads, amplified in the degree of 
the musical capacity; but the Nightingale presents a striking difference to the 
Blackcap, although they resemble each-other in melodious power. They are 
both full in the regions of Melody and Time, but the Nightingale is broad at 
Cautiousness, which might be anticipated, from its solitary and timid habits, 
whilst the Blackcap is more friendly, and indicates much less breadth of head in 
the region of Cautiousness. 
It may be worthy of remark, that in our attempts to ascertain the mental 
faculties of animals by means of their cerebral organization, there are found many 
difficulties ; but the skulls of birds form an exception. Quadrupeds, for instance, 
carry their heads in an horizontal position, sustained by very powerful muscles 
and ligaments, inserted in a ridge of bone at the back of the skull, and which in 
some measure is an obstacle in ascertaining the character of animals during life, as 
the external skull does not indicate the form of the brain enclosed within it. 
With the skulls of birds we have less difficulty, as they are the exact shape of 
the brain within them, and the bones are so fragile, that very often they are not 
thicker than a sheet of writing-paper. Hence the form of the skull is seen to be 
the fac-simile of the brain within. 
I may mention a very interesting fact in proof of this. A gentleman one day 
visited my museum, and I was examining and arranging the birds’ skulls. He 
looked at them, and then not only pointed out the Warblers, Divers, Waders, 
&c. &c., but also distinguished the species. And this, be it observed, by no 
factitious aids, the skulls having been deprived of their integuments and feathers, 
