What are the efficient causes of this exceptionally high intelligence in parrots? Well, Mr. Herbert Spencer, I believe, was the first to point out the intimate connection that exists throughout the animal world between mental development and the power of grasping an object all round so as to know exactly its shape and its tactile7 properties. The possession of an effective prehensile8 organ—a hand or its equivalent—seems to be the first great requisite9 for the evolution of a high order of intellect. Man and the monkeys, for example, have a pair of hands; and in their case one can see at a glance how dependent is their intelligence upon these grasping organs. All human arts base themselves ultimately upon the human hand; and even the apes approach nearest to humanity in virtue10 of their ever-active and busy little fingers. The elephant, again, has his flexible trunk, which, as we have all heard over and over again, usque ad nauseam, is equally well adapted to pick up a pin or to break the great boughs11 of tropical forest trees. (That pin, in particular, is now a well-worn classic.) The squirrel, once more, celebrated12 for his unusual intelligence when judged by a rodent13 standard, uses his pretty little paws as veritable hands, by which he can grasp a nut or fruit all round, and so gain in his small mind a clear conception of its true shape and properties. Throughout the animal kingdom generally, indeed, this correspondence, or rather this chain of causation, makes itself everywhere felt; no high intelligence without a highly developed prehensile and grasping organ.
Perhaps the opossum is the very best and most crucial instance that could possibly be adduced of the intimate connection which exists between touch and intellect. For the opossum is a marsupial14; it belongs to the same group of lowly-organized, antiquated16, and pouch-bearing animals as the kangaroo, the wombat17, and the other belated Australian mammals. Now everybody knows the marsupials as a class are nothing short of preternaturally stupid. They are just about the very dullest and silliest of all existing quadrupeds. And this is reasonable enough, when one comes to think of it, for they represent a very antique and early type, the first rough sketch18 of the mammalian idea, if I may so describe them, with wits unsharpened as yet by contact with the world in the fierce competition of the struggle for life as it displays itself on the crowded stage of the great continents. They stand, in short, to the lions and tigers, the elephants and horses, the monkeys and squirrels, of Europe and America, as the Australian blackfellow stands to the Englishman or the Yankee. They are the last relic19 of the original secondary quadrupeds, stranded20 for ages in a remote southern island, and still keeping up among Australian forests the antique type of life that went out of fashion in Europe, Asia, and America before the chalk was laid down or the London Clay deposited on the bed of our northern oceans. Hence they have still very narrow brains, and are so extremely stupid that a kangaroo, it is said—though I don't vouch21 for it myself—when struck a smart blow, will turn and bite the stick that hurts him instead of expending22 his anger on the hand that holds it.
Now, every Girton girl is well aware that the opossum, though it is a marsupial too, differs inexpressibly in psychological development from the kangaroo and the wombat. Your opossum, in short, is active, sly, and extremely intelligent. He knows his way about the world he lives in. 'A 'possum up a gum-tree' is accepted by the observant American mind as the very incarnation of animal cleverness, cunning, and duplicity. In negro folk-lore the resourceful 'possum takes the place of Reynard the Fox in European stories: he is the Macchiavelli of wild beasts: there is no ruse23 on earth of which he isn't amply capable, no artful trick which he can't design and execute, no wily manoeuvre24 which he can't contrive25 and carry to an end successfully. All guile26 and intrigue27, the 'possum can circumvent28 even Uncle Remus himself by his crafty29 diplomacy30. And what is it that makes all the difference between this 'cute Yankee marsupial and his backward and belated Australian cousins? Why, nothing but the possession of a prehensile hand and tail. Therein lies the whole secret. The opossum's hind31 foot has a genuine opposable thumb; and he also uses his tail in climbing as a supernumerary hand, almost as much as do any of the monkeys. He often suspends himself by it, like an acrobat32, swings his body to and fro to get up steam, then lets go suddenly, and flies away to a distant branch, which he clutches by means of his hand-like hind feet. If the toes play him false, he can 'recover his tip,' as circus-folk put it, with his prehensile tail. The consequence is that the opossum, being able to form for himself clear and accurate conceptions of the real shapes and relations of things by these two distinct grasping organs, has acquired an unusual amount of general intelligence. And further, in the keen competition of the American continent, he has been forced to develop an amount of cleverness and low cunning which leaves his Australian poor relations far behind in the Middle Ages of evolution.
At the risk of seeming to run off at a tangent and forsake33 our ostensible34 subject, pretty Poll, altogether, I must just pause for one moment more to answer an objection which I know has been trembling on the tip of your tongue any time the last five minutes. You've been waiting till you could get a word in edgeways to give me a friendly nudge and remark very wisely, 'But look here, I say; how about the dog and the horse in your argument? They've got no prehensile organ that ever I heard of, and yet they're universally allowed to be the cleverest and most intelligent of all earthly quadrupeds.' True, O most sapient35 and courteous36 objector. I grant it you at once. But observe the difference. The cleverness of the horse and the dog is acquired, not original. It has probably arisen in the course of their long hereditary37 intercourse38 and companionship with man, the cleverest and most serviceable individuals being deliberately39 selected from generation to generation, as dams and sires to breed from. We can't fairly compare these artificial human products, therefore, with wild races whose intelligence is all native and self-evolved. Moreover, the horse at least has to some slight extent a prehensile organ in his very mobile and sensitive lip, which he uses like an undeveloped or rudimentary proboscis40 to feel things all over with. So that the dog alone remains41 as a contradictory42 instance; and even the dog derives43 his cleverness indirectly44 from man, whose hand and thumb in the last resort are really at the bottom of his vicarious wisdom.
We may conclude, then, I believe, that touch, as Mr. Herbert Spencer admirably words it, is 'the mother-tongue of the senses;' and that in proportion as animals have or have not highly developed and serviceable tactile organs will they rank high or low in the intellectual hierarchy45 of nature. Now, how does this bear upon the family of parrots? Well, in the first place, everybody who has ever kept a cockatoo or a macaw in domestic slavery is well aware that in no other birds do the claws so closely resemble a human or simian46 hand, not indeed in outer form or appearance, but in opposability of the thumbs and in perfection of grasping power. The toes on each foot are arranged in opposite pairs—two turning in front and two backward, which gives all parrots their peculiar47 firmness in clinging on a perch48 or on the branch of a tree with one foot only, while they extend the other to grasp a fruit or to clutch at any object they desire to take possession of. True, this peculiarity49 isn't entirely50 confined to the parrots alone, as such. They share the division of the foot into two thumbs and two fingers with a whole large group of allied51 birds, called, in the charmingly concise52 and poetical53 language of technical ornithology54, the Scansorial Picarians, and more generally, known to the unlearned herd55 (meaning you and me) by their several names of woodpeckers, cuckoos, toucans56, and plantain-eaters. All the members of this great group, of which the parrots proper are only the most advanced and developed family, possess the same arrangement of the digits57 into front-toes and back-toes. But in none is the arrangement so perfect as in the parrots, and in none is the power of grasping an object all round so completely developed and so pregnant in moral and intellectual consequences.
All the Scansorial Picarians, however (if the reader with his proverbial courtesy will kindly58 pardon me the inevitable59 use of such very bad words), are essentially60 tree-haunters; and the tree-haunting and climbing habit, as is well beknown, seems particularly favourable61 to the growth of intelligence. Thus schoolboys climb trees—but I forgot: this is a scientific article, and such levity62 is inconsistent with the dignity of science. Let us be serious! Well, at any rate, monkeys, squirrels, opossums, wild cats, are all of them climbers, and all of them, in the act of clinging, jumping, and balancing themselves on boughs, gain such an accurate idea of geometrical figure, perspective, distance, and the true nature of space-relations, as could hardly be acquired in any other manner. In one word, they thoroughly63 understand space of three dimensions, and the tactual realities that answer to and underlie64 each visible appearance. This is the very substratum of all intelligence; and the monkeys, possessing it more profoundly than any other animals, have accordingly taken the top of the form in the competitive examination perpetually conducted by survival of the fittest.
So, too, among birds, the parrots and their allies climb trees and rocks with exceptional ease and agility65. Even in their own department they are the great feathered acrobats66. Anybody who watches a woodpecker, for example, grasping the bark of a tree with its crooked67 and powerful toes, while it steadies itself behind by digging its stiff tail-feathers into the crannies of the outer rind, will readily understand how clear a notion the bird must gain into the practical action of the laws of gravity. But the true parrots go a step further in the same direction than the woodpeckers or the toucans; for, in addition to prehensile feet, they have also a highly-developed prehensile bill, and within it a tongue which acts in reality as an organ of touch. They use their crooked beaks68 to help them in climbing from branch to branch; and being thus provided alike with wings, legs, hands, fingers, bill and tongue, they are in fact the most truly arboreal69 of all known animals, and present in the fullest and highest degree all the peculiar features of the tree-haunting existence.
Nor is that all. Alone among birds or mammals, the parrots have the curious peculiarity of being able to move the upper as well as the lower jaw70. It is this strange mobility71 of both the mandibles together, combined with the crafty effect of the sideways glance from those artful eyes, that gives the characteristic air of intelligence and wisdom to the parrot's face. We naturally expect so clever a bird to speak. And when it turns upon us suddenly with a copy-book maxim72, we are in no way astonished at its surpassing smartness.
Parrots are vegetarians74; with a single degraded exception to whom I shall recur75 hereafter, Sir Henry Thompson himself couldn't find fault with their regimen. They live chiefly upon a light but nutritious76 diet of fruit and seeds, or upon the abundant nectar of rich tropical flowers. And it is mainly for the sake of getting at their chosen food that they have developed the large and powerful bills which characterise the family. You may have perhaps noted77 that most tropical fruit-eaters, like the hornbills and the toucans, are remarkable78 for the size and strength of their beaks: if you haven't, I dare say you will generously take my word for it. And, per contra, it may also have struck you that most tropical fruits have thick or hard or nauseous rinds, which need to be torn off before the monkeys or birds for whose use they are intended, can get at them and eat them. Our little northern strawberries, and raspberries, and currants, and whortleberries, developed with a single eye to the petty robins79 and finches of temperate80 climates, can be popped into, the mouth whole and eaten as they stand: they are meant for small birds to devour81, and to disperse82 the tiny undigested nut-like seeds in return for the bribe83 of the soft pulp84 that surrounds them. But it is quite otherwise with oranges, shaddocks, bananas, plantains, mangoes, and pine-apples: those great tropical fruits can only be eaten properly with a knife and fork, after stripping off the hard and often acrid85 rind that guards and preserves them. They lay themselves out for dispersion by monkeys, toucans, and other relatively86 large and powerful fruit-eaters; and the rind is put there as a barrier against small thieves who would rob the sweet pulp, but be absolutely incapable87 of carrying away and dispersing88 the large and richly-stored seeds it covers.
Parrots and toucans, however, have no knives and forks to cut off the rind with; but as monkeys use their fingers, so the birds use for the same purpose their sharp and powerful bills. No better nut-crackers and fruit-parers could possibly be found. The parrot, in particular, has developed for the purpose his curved and inflated89 beak—a wonderful weapon, keen as a tailor's scissors, and moved by powerful muscles on either side of the face which bring together the cutting edges with extraordinary energy. The way the bird holds the fruit gingerly in one claw, while he strips off the rind dexterously90 with his under-hung lower mandible, and keeps a sharp look-out meanwhile on either side with those sly and stealthy eyes of his for a possible intruder, suggests to the observing mind the whole living drama of his native forest. One sees in that vivid world the watchful91 monkey ever ready to swoop92 down upon the tempting93 tail-feathers of his hereditary foe94: one sees the canny95 parrot ever prepared for his rapid attack, and ever eager to make him pay with five joints96 of his tail for his impertinent interference with an unoffending fellow-citizen of the arboreal community.
Still, there are parrots and parrots, of course. Not all this vast family are in all things of like passions one with another. The great black cockatoo, for example, the largest of the tribe, lives almost entirely off the central shoot or 'cabbage' of palm-trees: an expensive kind of food, for when once the 'cabbage' is eaten the tree dies forthwith, so that each black cockatoo must have killed in his time whole groves98 of cabbage-palms. Others, again, feed off fruits and seeds; and not a few are entirely adapted for flower-haunting and honey-sucking.
As a group, the parrots are comparatively modern birds. Indeed, they could have no place in the world till the big tropical fruits and nuts were beginning to be developed. And it is now pretty certain that fruits and nuts are for the most part of very recent and special evolution. To put it briefly99, the monkeys and parrots developed the fruits and nuts, while the fruits and nuts returned the compliment by developing conversely the monkeys and parrots. In other words, both types grew up side by side in mutual100 dependence101, and evolved themselves pari passu for one another's benefit. Without the fruits there could be no fruit-eaters; and without the fruit-eaters to disperse their seeds, there could just to the same extent be no fruits to speak of.
Most of the parrots very much resemble the monkeys and other tropical fruit-feeders in their habits and manners. They are gregarious102, mischievous103, noisy, and irresponsible. They have no moral sense, and are fond of practical jokes and other schoolboy horseplay. They move about in flocks, screeching104 aloud as they go, and alight together on some tree well covered with berries. No doubt, they herd together for the sake of protection and screech105 both to keep the flock in a body and to strike alarm and consternation107 into the breasts of their enemies. When danger threatens, the first bird that perceives it sounds a note of warning; and in a moment the whole troop is on the wing at once, vociferous108 and eager, roaring forth97 a song in their own tongue which may be roughly interpreted as stating in English that they don't want to fight, but by Jingo, if they do, they'll tear their enemy to shreds109 and drink his blood up too.
The common grey parrot, the best known in confinement110 of all his kind, and unrivalled as an orator111 for his graces of speech, is a native of West Africa; so that he shares with other West Africans that perfect command of language which has always been a marked characteristic of the negro race. He feeds in a general way upon palm-nuts, bananas, mangoes, and guavas, but he is by no means averse112, if opportunity offers, to the Indian corn of the industrious113 native. His wife accompanies him in his solitary114 rambles115, for they are not gregarious. In her native haunts, indeed, Polly is an unsociable bird. It is only in confinement that her finer qualities come out, and that she develops into a speech-maker of distinguished116 attainments117.
A very peculiar and exceptional offshoot of the parrot group is the brush-tongued lory, several species of which are common in Australia, India, and the Molucca Islands. These pretty and interesting creatures are in point of fact parrots which have practically made themselves into humming-birds by long continuance in the poetical habit of visiting flowers for food. Like Mr. Oscar Wilde in his ?sthetic days, they breakfast off a lily. Flitting about from tree to tree with great rapidity, they thrust their long extensible tongues, pencilled with honey-gathering hairs, into the tubes of many big tropical blossoms. The lories, indeed, live entirely on nectar, and they are so common in the region they have made their own that all the larger flowers there have been developed with a special view to their tastes and habits, as well as to the structure of their peculiar brush-like honey-collector. In most parrots the mouth is dry and the tongue horny; but in the lories it is moist and much more like the same organ in the humming-birds and sun-birds. The prevalence of very large and brilliantly coloured flowers in the Malayan region must be set down for the most part to the selective action of these ?sthetic and colour-loving little brush-tongued parrots.
Australia and New Zealand, as everybody knows, are the countries where everything goes by contraries. And it is here that the parrot group has developed some of its strangest and most abnormal offshoots. One would imagine beforehand that no two birds could be more unlike in every respect than the gaudy118, noisy, gregarious cockatoos and the sombre, nocturnal, solitary owls119. Yet the New Zealand owl15-parrot is, to put it plainly, a lory which has assumed all the outer appearance and habits of an owl. A lurker120 in the twilight121 or under the shades of night, burrowing122 for its nest in holes in the ground, it has dingy123 brown plumage like the owls, with an undertone of green to bespeak124 its parrot origin: while its face is entirely made up of two great disks, surrounding the eyes, which succeed in giving it a most marked and unmistakable owl-like appearance.
Now, why should a parrot so strangely disguise itself and belie6 its ancestry125? The reason is plain. It found a place for it ready made in nature. New Zealand is a remote and sparsely-stocked island, peopled by mere126 casual waifs and strays of life from adjacent but still very distant continents. There are no dangerous enemies there. Here, then, was a clear chance for a nightly prowler. The owl-parrot with true business instinct saw the opening thus clearly laid before it, and took to a nocturnal and burrowing life, with the natural consequence that it acquired in time the dingy plumage, crepuscular127 eyes, and broad disk-like reflectors of other prowling night-fliers. Unlike the owls, however, the owl-parrot, true to the vegetarian73 instincts of the whole lory race, lives almost entirely upon sprigs of mosses128 and other creeping plants. It is thus essentially a ground bird; and as it feeds at night in a country possessing no native beasts of prey129, it has almost lost the power of flight, and uses its wings only as a sort of parachute to break its fall in descending130 from a rock or tree to its accustomed feeding-ground. To get up again, it climbs, parrot-like, with its hooked claws, up the surface of the trunk or the face of a precipice131.
Even more aberrant132 in its ways, however, than the burrowing owl-parrot, is that other strange and hated New Zealand lory, the kea, which, alone among its kind, has abjured133 the gentle ancestral vegetarianism134 of the cockatoos and macaws, in favour of a carnivorous diet of singular ferocity. And what is odder still, this evil habit has been developed in the kea since the colonization135 of New Zealand by the English, those most demoralizing of new-comers. The settlers have taught the Maori to wear tall hats and to drink strong liquors: and they have thrown temptation in the way of even the once innocent native parrot. Before the white man came, in fact, the kea was a mild-mannered fruit-eating or honey-sucking bird. But as soon as sheep-stations were established in the island these degenerate136 parrots began to acquire a distinct taste for raw mutton. At first, to be sure, they ate only the sheep's heads and offal that were thrown out from the slaughter-houses picking the bones as clean of meat as a dog or a jackal. But in process of time, as the taste for blood grew upon them, a still viler137 idea entered into their wicked heads. The first step on the downward path suggested the second. If dead sheep are good to eat, why not also living ones? The kea, pondering deeply on this abstruse138 problem, solved it at once with an emphatic139 affirmative. And he straightway proceeded to act upon his convictions, and invent a really hideous140 mode of procedure. Perching on the backs of the living sheep he has now learnt the exact spot where the kidneys are to be found; and he tears open the flesh to get at these dainty morsels141, which he pulls out and devours142, leaving the unhappy animal to die in miserable143 agony. As many as two hundred ewes have thus been killed in a night at a single station. I need hardly add that the sheep-farmer naturally resents this irregular proceeding144, so opposed to all ideals of good grazing, and that the days of the kea are now numbered in New Zealand. But from the purely145 psychological point of view the case is an interesting one, as being the best recorded instance of the growth of a new and complex instinct actually under the eyes of human observers.
One word as to the general colouring of the parrot group as a whole. Tropical forestine birds have usually a ground tone of green because that colour enables them best to escape notice among the monotonous146 verdure of equatorial woodland scenery. In the north, to be sure, green is a very conspicuous147 colour; but that is only because for half the year our trees are bare, and even during the other half they lack that 'breadth of tropic shade' which characterises the forests of all hot countries. Therefore, in temperate climates, the common ground-tone of birds is brown, to harmonise with the bare boughs and leafless twigs148, the clods of earth and dead turf or stubble. But in the evergreen149 tropics green is the right hue150 for concealment151 or defence. Therefore the parrots, the most purely tropical family of birds on earth, are mostly greenish; and among the smaller and more defenceless sorts, like the familiar little love-birds, where the need for protection is greatest, the green of the plumage is almost unbroken. Of the tiny Pigmy Parrots of New Guinea, for instance, Mr. Bowdler Sharpe says: 'Owing to their small size and the resemblance of their green colouring to the forests they inhabit, they are not easily seen, and until recent years were very hard to procure152.' And of the green parrot of Jamaica, Mr. Gosse remarks: 'Often we hear their voices proceeding from a certain tree, or else have marked the descent of a flock on it; but on proceeding to the spot, though the eye has not wandered from it, we cannot discover an individual. We go close to the tree, but all is silent and still as death. We institute a careful survey of every part with the eye, to detect the slightest motion, or the form of a bird among the leaves, but all in vain. We begin to think they have stolen off unperceived; but on throwing a stone into the tree, a dozen throats burst forth into a cry, and as many green birds rush forth upon the wing. Green may thus be regarded as the normal or basal parrot tint153, from which all other colours are special decorative154 variations.
But fruit-eating and flower-feeding creatures, like butterflies and humming-birds—seeking their food ever among the bright berries and brilliant flowers, almost invariably acquire in the long run an ?sthetic taste for pure and varied155 colouring, and by the aid of sexual selection this taste stereotypes156 itself at last in their own wings and plumage. They choose their mates for colour as they choose their foodstuffs157. Hence all the larger and more gregarious parrots, in which the need for concealment is less, tend to diversify158 the fundamental green of their coats with crimson159, yellow, or blue, which in some cases take possession of the entire body. The largest kinds of all, like the great blue and yellow or crimson macaws, are as gorgeous as Solomon in all his glory: and they are also the species least afraid of enemies; for in Brazil you may often see them wending their way homeward openly in pairs every evening, with as little attempt at concealment as rooks in England. In the Moluccas and New Guinea, says Mr. Wallace, white cockatoos and gorgeous lories in crimson and blue are the very commonest objects in the local fauna160. Even the New Zealand owl-parrot, however, still retains many traces of his original greenness, mixed with the dirty brown and dingy yellow of his acquired nocturnal and burrowing nature.
If fruit-eaters are fine, flower-haunters are magnificent. And the brush-tongued lories, that search for nectar among the bells of Malayan blossoms, are the brightest-coloured of all the parrot tribes. Indeed, no group of birds, according to Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace (who ought to know, if anybody does), exhibits within the same limited number of types so extraordinary a diversity and richness of colouring as the parrots. 'As a rule,' he says, 'parrots may be termed green birds, the majority of the species having this colour as the basis of their plumage, relieved by caps, gorgets, bands and wing-spots of other and brighter hues161. Yet this general green tint sometimes changes into light or deep blue, as in some macaws; into pure yellow or rich orange, as in some of the American macaw-parrots; into purple, grey or dove-colour, as in some American, African, and Indian species; into the purest crimson, as in some of the lories; into rosy-white and pure white, as in the cockatoos; and into a deep purple, ashy or black, as in several Papuan, Australian, and Mascarene species. There is in fact hardly a single distinct and definable colour that cannot be fairly matched among the 390 species of known parrots. Their habits, too, are such as to bring them prominently before the eye. They usually feed in flocks; they are noisy, and so attract attention; they love gardens, orchards162, and open sunny places; they wander about far in search of food, and towards sunset return homeward in noisy flocks, or in constant pairs. Their forms and motions are often beautiful and attractive. The immensely long tails of the macaws and the more slender tails of the Indian parroquets, the fine crest163 of the cockatoos, the swift flight of many of the smaller species, and the graceful164 motions of the little love-birds and allied forms, together with their affectionate natures, aptitude165 for domestication166, and power of mimicry167, combine to render them at once the most conspicuous and the most attractive of all the specially168 tropical forms of bird life.'
I have purposely left to the last the one point about parrots which most often attracts the attention of the young, the gay, the giddy, and the thoughtless: I mean their power of mimicry in human language. And I believe I am justified169 in passing it over lightly. For in fact this power is but a very incidental result of the general intelligence of parrots, combined with the other peculiarities170 of their social life and forestine character. Dominant171 woodland animals, indeed, like monkeys, parrots, toucans, and hornbills, at least if vegetarian in their habits, are almost always gregarious, noisy, mischievous, and imitative. And the imitation results directly from the unusual intelligence; for, after all, what is the power of learning itself—at least, in all save its very highest phases—but the faculty172 of accurately173 imitating another? Monkeys for the most part imitate action only, because they haven't very varied or flexible voices. Parrots and many other birds, on the contrary—like the starling and still more markedly the American mocking-bird—being endowed with considerable flexibility174 of voice, imitate either songs or spoken words with great distinctness. In the parrot the power of attention is also very considerable, for the bird will often try over with itself repeatedly the lesson it has set itself to learn. But people too generally forget that at best the parrot knows only the general application of a sentence, not the separate meanings of its component175 words. It knows, for example, that 'Polly wants a lump of sugar' is a phrase often followed by a present of food. But to believe it can understand an abstract expression, like the famous 'By Jove! what a beastly lot of parrots!' is to confound learning by rote106 with genuine comprehension. A careful review of all the evidence makes almost every scientific observer conclude that at most a parrot knows a word of command as a horse knows 'Whoa!' or a dog knows the order to hunt for rats in the wainscot.
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loquacity
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| n.多话，饶舌 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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adaptability
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| n.适应性 | |
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ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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magpies
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| 喜鹊（magpie的复数形式） | |
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belie
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| v.掩饰，证明为假 | |
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tactile
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| adj.触觉的，有触觉的，能触知的 | |
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prehensile
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| adj.（足等）适于抓握的 | |
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requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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rodent
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| n.啮齿动物；adj.啮齿目的 | |
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marsupial
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| adj.有袋的，袋状的 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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wombat
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| n.袋熊 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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vouch
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| v.担保；断定；n.被担保者 | |
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22
expending
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| v.花费( expend的现在分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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23
ruse
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| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
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24
manoeuvre
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| n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动 | |
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25
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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26
guile
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| n.诈术 | |
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27
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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28
circumvent
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| vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜 | |
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29
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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30
diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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31
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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32
acrobat
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| n.特技演员，杂技演员 | |
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33
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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34
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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35
sapient
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| adj.有见识的，有智慧的 | |
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36
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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37
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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38
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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39
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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40
proboscis
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| n.（象的）长鼻 | |
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41
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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42
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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43
derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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44
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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45
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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46
simian
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| adj.似猿猴的；n.类人猿，猴 | |
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47
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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48
perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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49
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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50
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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51
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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52
concise
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| adj.简洁的，简明的 | |
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53
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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54
ornithology
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| n.鸟类学 | |
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55
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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56
toucans
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| n.巨嘴鸟，犀鸟( toucan的名词复数 ) | |
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57
digits
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| n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾 | |
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58
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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59
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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60
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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61
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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62
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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63
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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64
underlie
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| v.位于...之下，成为...的基础 | |
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65
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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66
acrobats
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| n.杂技演员( acrobat的名词复数 )；立场观点善变的人，主张、政见等变化无常的人 | |
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67
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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68
beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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69
arboreal
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| adj.树栖的；树的 | |
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70
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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71
mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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72
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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73
vegetarian
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| n.素食者；adj.素食的 | |
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74
vegetarians
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| n.吃素的人( vegetarian的名词复数 )；素食者；素食主义者；食草动物 | |
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75
recur
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| vi.复发，重现，再发生 | |
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76
nutritious
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| adj.有营养的，营养价值高的 | |
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77
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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78
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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79
robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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80
temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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81
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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82
disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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83
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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84
pulp
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| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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85
acrid
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| adj.辛辣的，尖刻的，刻薄的 | |
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86
relatively
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|
| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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87
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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88
dispersing
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| adj. 分散的 动词disperse的现在分词形式 | |
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89
inflated
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|
| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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90
dexterously
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| adv.巧妙地，敏捷地 | |
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91
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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92
swoop
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| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
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93
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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94
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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95
canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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96
joints
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|
| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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97
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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98
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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99
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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100
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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101
dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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102
gregarious
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| adj.群居的，喜好群居的 | |
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103
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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104
screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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105
screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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106
rote
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| n.死记硬背，生搬硬套 | |
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107
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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108
vociferous
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| adj.喧哗的，大叫大嚷的 | |
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109
shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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110
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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111
orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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112
averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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113
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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114
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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115
rambles
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| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
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116
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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117
attainments
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| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
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118
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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119
owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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120
lurker
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| n.诱鱼灯船，划艇 | |
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121
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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122
burrowing
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| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的现在分词 )；翻寻 | |
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123
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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124
bespeak
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| v.预定；预先请求 | |
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125
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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126
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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127
crepuscular
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| adj.晨曦的；黄昏的；昏暗的 | |
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128
mosses
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| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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129
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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130
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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131
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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132
aberrant
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| adj.畸变的，异常的，脱离常轨的 | |
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133
abjured
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| v.发誓放弃( abjure的过去式和过去分词 )；郑重放弃（意见）；宣布撤回（声明等）；避免 | |
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134
vegetarianism
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| n.素食，素食主义 | |
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135
colonization
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| 殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖 | |
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136
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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137
viler
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的比较级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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138
abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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139
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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140
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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141
morsels
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| n.一口( morsel的名词复数 )；（尤指食物）小块，碎屑 | |
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142
devours
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| 吞没( devour的第三人称单数 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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143
miserable
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|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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144
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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145
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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146
monotonous
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|
| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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147
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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148
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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149
evergreen
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| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
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150
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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151
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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152
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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153
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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154
decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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155
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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156
stereotypes
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| n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 ) | |
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157
foodstuffs
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| 食物，食品( foodstuff的名词复数 ) | |
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158
diversify
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| v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化 | |
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159
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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160
fauna
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| n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系 | |
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161
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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162
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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163
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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164
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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165
aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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166
domestication
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| n.驯养，驯化 | |
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167
mimicry
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| n.（生物）拟态，模仿 | |
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168
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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169
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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170
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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171
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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172
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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173
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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174
flexibility
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| n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性 | |
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component
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| n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的 | |
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