ABSTRACT
E. A. Armstrong and J. Hall-Craggs have discussed with great sensitivity and perception the aesthetic impact of bird songs on human beings from the earliest recorded time. This chapter discusses another facet of bird behaviour which illustrates even more dramatically the astounding powers of perceptual organisation which many of these creatures possess. One of the most remarkable examples of exploratory learning, as it is often convenient to term this process involving perceptual synthesis, is provided by the Gobiid fish, Bathygobius soporator, a species which inhabits tidal pools in the Bahamas and other tropical shores. Matthews G. V. T. suggested that diurnal birds obtain the necessary information from observation of the sun's arc, providing they can "remember" the characteristics of the sun's arc at home. The chapter deals with the question of the origin and meaning of the form and pattern of animals in evolution.
