Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1884 — Do Birds Think? [ARTICLE]

Do Birds Think?

Do birds think? Let me tell you of a little-bird I once owned. The little bird was a female mocking-bird who had a nest of young ones about a week old. The baby birds were never healthy, inheriting weakness from their father, who had asthma. Early one morning I was awakened by the mother bird standing on my pillow pouring into my ear the most mournful notes-1 ever heard. I knew something was wrong and arose at once. The mother flew to her nest, and looked to see if I was following,* which I was. As soon as I had reached the nest she took hold of one of the baby bird’s wings, pinched it gently with her beak and watched it eagerly, I think, to see if it moved. Then she took bold of one of the little. feet and pinched it in the same manner and, finding it did not move, she looked* up at me in a pleading way, as if she wanted me to waken them. I reached my hand out toward the nest. She stood aside and looked on with as much interest and feeling as any young human mother. I examined the lifeless little bodies, and when I withdrew my hand the mother hastened to hover over the little ones, seeming to think that if she could warm them they would awaken. In a few moments she hopped off the nest,‘ looked at her babies, held food close to their mouths and coaxed and called them, but in vain. She'flew all around the room, if in search of some untried remedy. Several times she perched on my shoulder, and looked so distressed and pitiful I could scarcely keep from crying. I put her in a cage and hung her in the sunshine to see if she would become quiet. She took, a bath, but still remained nervous and seemed anxious and by and by grew so restless I had to take her out of the cage and let her go to the nest again. She stood quite a while looking at her dead children. Then she -went over all the bodies—pinching them gently and watching them closely to see if they moved. When she saw no signs of life she seemed puzzled. She seemed at last to make up her mind the little ones were dead. And one by one she lifted them tenderly in her beak and laid them side by side in the middle of the room. She looked at them lovingly a moment then flew to her empty nest and gazed wonderingly into that. Finally she perched on my shoulder and looked into my eyes, as if to ask: What does all this mean? What a lesson of love and devotion that little bird taught ? She always fed the little ones before taking a mouthful herself, and sometimes she would stand coaxing them to take one more mouthful, and finding they had enough would swallow it herself.— Chicago Times.