the level of their culture which is
attained by the peacock's tail, it is not unreasonable for us to hold
that in the appreciation of simple beauty in form and in color, the
birds are far ahead of ourselves. It must not be supposed that our
aesthetic culture is to be reckoned below that of birds, though in our
case the work embodies the delineation of ideas, while in the birds it
is a matter of pure ornament. Nevertheless, taking the evidence which
shows the way in which these creatures appreciate beauty in the three
realms of form, color, and sound, it seems to me clear that while their
intellectual life is low, their purely emotional experiences are
probably more vivid than those of ordinary men.

As the joy of life is, in the main, even in ourselves the result of
emotional experiences, we may fairly reckon, even on _a priori_ ground,
that the birds win a measure of happiness, though it be that of an
unconscious kind, which is granted to no other living beings.
Psychologically described, they might well be termed the group built
for joy. Their bodies are, on the whole, the best constructed of all
animals, except the insects. They suffer little from disease. We all
see that their intercourse with each other is freer and merrier than
that of other creatures. The wide range of their notes shows that in
most forms they appreciate every little difference in the
pleasure-giving changes of the day or the weather. They rejoice in the
coming of each morning; they are sorrowful with the advent of each
evening. They echo the distress of their kind in a readier way than
any other forms. He is indeed a poor naturalist who overlooks this
trait; for however deeply he may have delved, he has not won the jewel
unless he appreciates this element of an unending joy which the
bird-life continually offers him. From that life we may well believe
that man is hereafter to derive some great and fruitful lessons.

USEFUL INSECTS

Relations of Man to Insect World.--But Few Species Useful to
Man.--Little Trace of Domestication.--Honey-bees: their Origin;
Reasons for no Selective Work; Habits of the Species.--Silkworms:
Singular Importance to Man; Intelligence of Species.--Cochineal
Insect.--Spanish Flies.--Future of Man relative to Useful Insects.

Although the relations of man to the insect world are prevailingly those
of hostility, there are a few of these multitudinous creatures which
have been more or less complet