The minds of birds /

Skutch testifies to his affection for birds, shared through anecdotes of bird behavior, but he tacitly seeks to convince us that birds have psychic lives encompassing impatience, delight, affection, dread, pride, and even foresight. Yet, in leading this argument, the author openly dismisses the scientific method and claims "no pretension to thoroughness," speculating on the "moral value" of birdsong and marveling at bird's "aesthetic sense." Worse still, he seems to have little grasp of the various mechanisms of evolution when he describes it repeatedly as an "excessively harsh" process driven only by mutation, and that natural selection is an unsatisfactory explanation of birdsong variety or breeding plumes because they are simply too beautiful. Apparently surpassing humans, birds are claimed to "take the most thorough care of their young" among all animals, representing the "most wonderful pieces of organized matter that nature has produced." If one is inclined to forgive Skutch's confusion about anthropomorphism and Darwin, and accept his musings simply as such, one might enjoy this wandering and often circular conversation. Scientists will be less amused and far from convinced. W. J. Ehmann Trinity College (DC)