MENTAL QUALITIES OF BIRDS, AND THEIR TASTE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL.
Before we further discuss the question whether the females select the
more attractive males or accept the first whom they 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. (9. I am indebted to
Prof. Newton for the following passage from Mr. Adam s Travels of a
Naturalist, 1870, p. 278. Speaking of Japanese nut-hatches in
confinement, he says: Instead of the more yielding fruit of the yew,
which is the usual food of the nut-hatch of Japan, at one time I
substituted hard hazel-nuts. As the bird was unable to crack them, he
placed them one by one in his water-glass, evidently with the notion
that they would in time become softer an interesting proof of
intelligence on the part of these birds. ) Low powers of reasoning,
however, 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 pines for a long time; but Mr. Jenner Weir
thinks that with most birds the strength of their affection has been
much exaggerated. Nevertheless when one of a pair in a state of nature
has been shot, the survivor has been heard for days afterwards uttering
a plaintive call; and Mr. St. John gives various facts proving the
attachment of mated birds. (10. A Tour in Sutherlandshire, vol. i.
1849, p. 185. Dr. Buller says ( Birds of New Zealand, 1872, p. 56)
that a male King Lory was killed; and the female fretted and moped,
refused her food, and died of a broken heart. ) Mr. Bennett relates
(11. Wanderings in New South Wales, vol. ii. 1834, p. 62.) that in
China after a drake of the beautiful mandarin Teal had been stolen, the
duck remained disconsolate, though sedulously courted by another
mandarin drake, who displayed before her all his charms. After an
interval of three weeks the stolen drake was recovered, and instantly
the pair recognised each other with extreme joy. On the other hand,
starlings, as we have seen, may be consoled thrice in the same day for
the loss of their mates. Pigeons have such excellent local memories,
that they have been known to return to their former homes after an
interval of nine months, yet, as I hear from Mr. Harrison Weir, if a
pair which naturally would remain mated for life be separated for a few
weeks during the winter, and afterwards matched with other birds, the
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