Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/142

136 cuckoo and the American cowbird, the young of which are reared by foster-parents of many diverse species, would argue for little power in this direction. Yet, in some cases, the foreign body is promptly removed, when the nest is not summarily deserted through fear.

The freedom with which certain finches and grosbeaks learn to imitate difficult notes, and the fair degree of precision with which some

 as shown in Fig. 33, after new habit of entering opened nest was formed.

of the parrots, crows, jays, jackdaws and magpies reproduce spoken words, or even short sentences, show that they readily discriminate differences in the pitch of sounds, although they do not possess a cochlea of the complexity of structure found in mammals, and it is the cochlea in which this power is supposed to reside in man. It is interesting to note that the magpie, though a star performer in this art, never exhibits it, according to Blackwall, in a state of nature.

The bower birds of Australia show a decided liking for bright and colored objects of various kinds, which they work into their remarkable "runs," bowers, or "play-houses," and the crow, and other members of his tribe, which are commonly regarded as the most intelligent of birds, can seldom be trusted in the presence of any small and shining objects whatsoever, which they will steal, and either carry off and hide, or work into their nests. To mention a trivial case—a tame young crow once entered my room, made off with some objects on the dressing table, and deposited them on a belfry-roof hard by. Again, the hooded