The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1873-09-04
Love Of the Beautiful Among Birds,

The Popular Science Review Tor july
contains some interesting but too brief
remarks by Mr.. Leith Adams on the
mental Powers Of Birds" which it
is interesting to define specifically as dis
tinguished from the mental powers OF
other animals of the higher order Of
sagacity. This we will briefly do.
First, it would appear from MIR. Oar
wins discussions, though Mr.. Lcith
Adams hardly refers to them, that none
OF the lower orders Of creatures have 50
keen an appreciation of beauty as many
kinds Of birds, and certainly that none
turn this taste for beauty 50 deliberate
" to the purpose Of social amusement.
That great naturalist has described how
some kinds Of birds really celebrate
festivities very closely approaching to
our wedding Jctes, balls, and garden
parties, in places carefully decorated
and arranged by the birds for the prr-
pose of social gatherings, and which
are not used for their actual dwelling
places. "The best evidence, y says Mr..
Darwin, Of a taste for the beautiful, IS
afforded by three genera Of Australian
boyer-birds. = = Their bowers
where the sexes congregate and play
strange antics Cat all stranger than
our waltzes and quadrilles p "are differ
emily constructed but what most con
Germs us is that they are decorated in Il
different manner by the different spc-
cies. The satin bowcr-bird collects
g~avly-cOlored articles, such as the blue
tail feathers Of p~arrakcts, bIcachcd
bones and shells, which it sticks be
tween the twigs, or arrangcs at the en-
trance. Mr.. Gould found one bower a
neatl y-w0rkcd stone %tomahawk, and q
slip Of blue cotton, evidently procured
from a native cncampmcnt. These oh,
iccts are continually ~rcarrangcd, and
carried about blythe birds while Mt play.
The bower Of the spotted bowcr-blrd Is
beautifully lined with tall grasses, so
disposed that the heads nearly meet,
and the decorations are very prOfusc.
Round stones are used to keep the
grass-stems III their proper places, ana
to make divergent paths leading to the
bower. The stones and shells are often
brought from ii great distance, The re.
gcnt-bird, as described by Mr., Ramsey,
ornaments itB short bower with bIcachcd
land-shclls belonging to five or xix spe
cics, and with berricBOf various coIors
blue, red, and black, which give 1t
when fresh, II very pretty appearance
Besides these, there were several new
ly-picked leaves and young shoots Of
pinkish color, the whole showing II dc
cided taste for the beautiful Wei
may Mr.. Gould say, 'These highly-dc
corntcd halls OF assembly must be re
gardcd IN the most wonderful instance
Of birds architecture yet discovered
and the taste, we gee, Of the severn
species certainly differs You couI'
not have distincter evidence in II lady
sai0n carefully decorated with flowers
either Of her taste for the beautiful, o
of the deliberate subordination Of tina
taste to social purposes, than we hay'
here of the same qualities in birds, MIR
Leith Adams in his paper hardly re
fers, IA we have already observed, t.
this remarkable class of facts Mt all
only pointing out that the obvious pre-
ference for ~gayly-colored plumage %
the part Of the females clearly implic
u genuine taste for the beautiful 4
birds, which il, of course, true, but i
not nearly as good evidence Of n dis
tinct intellectual development of thi
point, as the elaborate decoration {
their bowers by birds for festive pu
poses. The mere preference OF ga
colors may be unconscious and pureI
instructive, but when II bird looks OF
for bleached land shells and tall grass,
to ornament its reception-room, an
fetches round stones to I" fix the grass,
in their proper place, and then uses TIL
hall thus provided only for festive 81
cial purposes, you can hardly deny sue
birds either the powers on the tastes {
landscape gardeners and ball givers
And we fancy this kind Of deliberat
taste for the beautiful, and the beautI
full in subordination to social purposes
il confined among the lower animals I
birds and, as regards the social pun
pose, to a very few order of birds.
great many birds seem to have more mp
probation of beauty of color THAI
almost any other class Of animals. bu
only in "A few species has it risen to the
point of really decorative social art
We may gather from this that in the
bird the perception of harmony is Of q
very high kind, and this evidently mp,
plies to sound as well as color. Nc
creatures utter sounds so full Of beauty,
or display such wonderful qualifications
Tor initiating the beautiful sounds they
hear. Must we not say, then, that the
bird has, in more force than any other
species of the lower animals, the per.
ception of harmony in forms, colors
and sounds, and the further conscious
ness of the fascination such harmon
has for its own species, and the Ell
hancement it lends to social enjoymen'