24 JUNE 1899, Page 33

A BIRD-STORY.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I am as well aware as " Ligurinus Chloris " is, that the greenfinch winters in England, but I know too that a pair which used to breakfast on my lawn regularly in the spring have not been Been for weeks, so I suppose that they have migrated to some other part of the Kingdom. But I was given a story, and did not look the gift-horse in the mouth, for though Mrs. L— is not an ornithologist, she loves her birds and feeds them, and is hardly likely to have mistaken the greenfinch for another bird. As to the facts, I can only say that the lady is above suspicion of having made up a story for publication, and I must suppose she meant that her greenfinches, like mine, went to some leafier paradise when they had reared their young, and came back the next nesting season to a place where they knew that there was good feed- ing. That several greenfinches should have come with the familiarity of the former visitor, which they never did before, is sufficient ground for concluding that they were the same stock and co-intelligent, for I have frequently witnessed the fact of one bird bringing others to feed where he had fed. As to believing or disbelieving that they did permit a lame sparrow to feed when they would not permit the sound ones to share the crumbs on the lawn, we are all at liberty to choose. I, knowing the lady, have no hesitation in accepting her assurances, admitting always chances of errors in recol- lsetion. As to imputing courtesy to an animal, I see no other interpretation, if the fact stands. That a one-legged bird has beeik allowed to exist is within my own knowledge, and if that articular bird had been attacked it would'have been by the s arrows, not the greenfinches. Yet I have seen white and pied sparrows in society with those of normal colour unmolested. Very odd things, and not at all in our philo- sophy in relation to animal intelligence, are constantly turn_ ing up. I am often reminded of a saying of Agassiz, when I told him of what I considered the superstition of the New England fishermen, exemplified in my father, who was one of them, viz., that the light of the full moon spoiled their codfish in curing, so that they always covered them up with a tar- paulin when the moon was full. I said that it was an old woman's story, to which Agassiz replied that he would like to investigate that story, for be "found that there was generally some foundation of truth in the old women's stories." It is a great thing to learn that our knowledge is not absolute.—I am, Sir, 81c., Condercurn, West Bournemouth. W. J. STILLMAN.

We cannot continue this controversy.—En. Spectator.]