PART II.—SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
CHAPTER I. 
CHARACTER. 
“ Greift nur liinein,. 
. niclit Yielen ist’s bekannt, 
Unci avo ilir’s packt, da ist’s interessant.” 
Faust. 
It will always be a bold undertaking to pass judgment 
on the intellectual capabilities of a creature which is, to 
a certain extent, unknown to us, and with whose nature 
and habits we are but partially acquainted. Animals still 
remain strangers to us naturalists, however much we may 
seek to arrive at an intimate knowledge of their life-history; 
and, if we would act faithfully towards them, each effort 
that we make to determine and to describe their intel¬ 
lectual life must avowedly be acknowledged to be a bold 
one. Nevertheless we consider ourselves, in some degree, 
competent to undertake the task, on the plea of our large 
and unprejudiced experience of, and intercourse with, 
the animal creation. We trust the friendly reader will 
criticise or excuse the following, in accordance with the 
foregoing remarks. 
The intellectual being of the bird, which we intend to 
be understood by the word “ character/’ occupies a vastly 
extended field. Man himself, known as the most capri¬ 
cious and wayward of all creatures, can scarce show us a 
