The faculties of birds / [Anon].

James Rennie

Date:: 1847

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The faculties of birds / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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branes, being probably more soft and delicate, are more susceptible of impressions from a small quan¬ tity of light. The nictitating membrane is also very large, and the upper eyelid, unlike other birds, is moveable*. We have adverted to the method of catching larks by means of a looking-glass, referring to the remark¬ able curiosity of birds as the probable cause of their being attracted to the bright glass. Whether it is on a similar principle that ravens, jays, and magpies (Corvidce, Leach) are fond of bright objects we have no means of deciding. In accordance with this view, a writer on Natural History says, “ A looking-glass is a matter of great wonder to magpies. We once saw one placed on the ground where two were hopping about. One of them came up to it, stared at it in apparent wonder, hopped off to the other, and then both returned and spent at least ten minutes in nodding, chattering, and hopping about the glass t-” Colonel Montagu tells us he was ‘‘ assured by a gentleman of veracity, that his butler having missed a great many silver spoons and other articles, without being able to detect the thief for some time, at last observed a tame raven with one in his mouth, and watched him to his hiding-place, where he found more than a dozen A similar story is told by Mrs. S. C. Hall of a raven kept a few years ago at Newhaven, an inn on the road between Buxton and Ashbourne. This bird had been taught to call the poultry when they fed, and could do it very well too. One day the table was set out for the coach-passengers ; the cloth was laid with the knives and forks, spoons, mats, and bread, and in that state was left some time, the room-door being shut, but the window open. The * Principes d’Anatomie Comparee. f Brit. Naturalist, ii. 216. $ Diet. p. 400.

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