MR. ROMANES ON ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Having just returned from Florence, I write, in the first instance, to thank your reviewer for supplying, as a result of his further inquiry into the subject, additional evidence against his original statement concerning the incubating habits of ostriches. From the account which the Superintendent at the Zoological Gardens at Florence gave me of the process, it is impossible to -question that the female bird takes part in it. I have, however, to object to your reviewer's assertion that I based my correct statement of fact upon "the traditional impression of opinion." Mr. Biggar's evidence, on which I relied, is first-hand, and did not "rest simply on a survival of the old belief," as your reviewer may satisfy himself, by referring to an article on ostrich-farming in the January number of the Century, which is written by Mr. Biggar, and describes still more in detail the incubating habits of the female bird.
Concerning the woodpecker, I have only to remark that in my -search for the authorities on which your reviewer relied, I encoun- tered the quotations which he now supplies. But it is evident that our ideas as to what constitutes, to use his words, " the essential -difference between evidence" as good or bad are here, as elsewhere, in hopeless disagreement. For, to my mind, it is no evidence at all that a green woodpecker does not remove its chips, to be -told, by an accumulation of authority, that a black woodpecker -does not do so ; one might just as well say that a tumbler pigeon does not tumble, because a carrier pigeon does not do so. Therefore, at best, the question with regard to the green wood- pecker must be considered doubtful. In my book, I gave Couch's statement expressly on Conch's authority ; and in subsequent -editions, I shall continue to do so, adding merely that it is dis- puted both by Mr. Harley and by Yarrell's editor.—I am, [Mr. Romanes has had a most unreasonable amount of space already, and though we do not grudge him the last word, he should, for his own sake, try to mortify his own excessive craving -.for that luxury of controversy.—En. Spectator.]
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