In conjunction with the next observation to be related and many other facts concerning the kinds of error made by birds of other species, it would seem possible to throw some additional light on the extent to which these birds really analyze the situation which confronts them.
For the sixth test of this Memory series another box to be opened was used. This new box had to be used with the Bluebirds, Field Sparrows, and White-throated Sparrow, in order that I might change the fastening on the old box and use it with the Baltimore Orioles and Blue Jays. The new box was identical with the old except that a slightly wider space was left between strings A and B.
The number of efforts required for the male Bluebird to open the box at once increased. It was easily observed that he alighted on the wire between strings A and B. Ostensibly his trials were more numerous for the reason that there was now greater space here and he could hop on the wire without striking the strings. If this is true then what is good from the standpoint of Memory alone need not signify much when we inquire as to the degree of analysis of which this bird is capable. We get a suggestion from this of how lacking in real analysis any act of bare recollection may be. These strings have not meant and never could mean to him at all what they mean to human consciousness. It was not for him the strings to pull, but a place to alight; more correctly perhaps he just alighted. Even saying no more than that it was a place to alight is putting it too anthropomorphically. True the bird is intelligent, but his consciousness must be far more simple, vague and unanalytic than our own.
Imitation is not clearly shown in this Memory series. The female does at times make trials at the same time with the male or follow him closely. But as in so many other series of tests, the writer feels that his criterion has not been met in a satisfactory way.
Series H.
Tests with Food-box on a Pair of Blue Jays.
The results obtained from a long series of tests with these birds is doubly interesting for the reason that this pair of Jays was reared by hand. They were very tame, or soon became so. Often they alighted on my back while I was placing the box in the cage. If at all hungry the male had to be carefully watched or he would alight on top of the box and take food from the pan as the box was carried into the cage.
These Jays, particularly the male, were very musical. It is said that much of it comes from the imitation of musical instruments like the mandolin, guitar and violin, all which they
