[To 781 EDITOR 07 1V7 BesCrATOa.".1 Sra,—Let me give you
the following bit of natural history, called forth by your article in the Spectator of February 12th, on the calculating faculty in animals, as illustrated in Sir J. Lubbock's late lecture.
A few years ago, in a park near Ware, in Herts., a small box was hung on a tree near the house, with a small hole at one end, for birds to nest in if they would. Soon a pair of tomtits took possession, and after much busy constructiveness, ten little eggs, and in due time ten little chicks made a family party. Whether he was weary of housekeeping, or fell in with a countee-attzez-
tion, or was caught bedding a greengage-tree, was never ascer- tained; but Mr. Tit one day did not return home. Poor Mrs. Tit did her best for some time ; but finding not only her own strength failing, but her little fledglings gradually wasting, she thought it better to save her due share of them than lose all. One morning, five of the young ones were found lying dead under the hole of the box, she having ejected them. This would seem to evidence not merely the faculty of numeration, but of passing in the first four rules of arithmetic. Clearly there was division and subtraction; and the sense that could conclude that the half of ten is five, might also be conscious that twice five is
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