"Birds, it seems, can have theories of mind, too"

Babe assumes an "eternal feline" pose that would strike fear in the heart of any small member of the Avian-American or Rodent-American communities. Lord of all he surveys with massive head looming over the iMac G5 (gray and white margin at bottom of photo is the top of our computer) this afternoon in the countdown to supper, he stares beyond us out the window at -- what else? -- things we don't see. The look recalled an American Primitive painting reproduced in an exhibition review in the Dark Ages of our tender youth when we actually read Time Magazine on a weekly basis.  We don't remember any of the specifics, but the image (below, right), seared itself into our consciousness.

"Babe keeps his eye on a bird in the branches above (left) while American Primitive painting appears to portray a bird's-eye view of a cat," we captioned the above photo set in our May 2004 post "Even educated fleas do it."

"Birds, it seems, can have theories of mind, too," we noted in a post two springs ago citing scientific studies that put the lie to the fond belief by so many of our fellow Homo sapiens that we are exceptional. We rediscovered the post in googling for the American Primitive painting (above right) whose spirit Babe embodied as he peered over our computer this afternoon (top photo).  Annoyingly, we didn't annotate the painting at the time, and we haven't been able to find it again for attributions. If anyone out there can provide the information, you will be rewarded handsomely.

For more fellow beings whose theories of mind most humans can only imagine, check out this week's Friday Ark at Modulator.

Comments

[Teresa]

I LOVE that top picture! What a stare Babe has going. *grin*

[Donna B.]

All your photos are great, but Babe looking over the computer monitor has to be one of the very best.

Beautiful!