Swallows that will Return Some of the pairs of swallows
that have just left us will doubtless return to the same eaves next year, proving that birds have faithful. memories, if not intelligent minds. For myself I hold, with Professor Thompson, that birds could .be much deferer, if they had to be. This gift of memory is not peculiar to the migrants, and it is probably stronger in the bigger birds than the smaller. A particular example has recently pleased the keepers of the aviaries at the London Zoo. A lady resident in Scotland came into possession of a young golden eagle and spent much trouble in trying to tame it ; but as it grew she became a little nervous of her protégé. Perhaps the 'fact that other eagles had at one time killed a number of lambs influenced her. A year or so after she had parted with her pet she went to the Zoo to see it, and was taken to the aviary by the keeper. The bird flew down at once from the top of the aviary and greeted the donor with an obvious pleasure that both delighted and astonished the keeper. Instances could be given where birds have proved the possession of aural as well as ocular memory. In the never-ending discussions on the differences between instinct and reason I think the gift of memory, which plays so large a part in reason, has been too generally disregarded.
Previous page
