Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night, and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.

Holmes: “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”

Watson: “I see millions and millions of stars.”

Holmes: “What does that tell you?”

Watson (pondered for a minute): “Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I supect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Why, what does it tell you?”

Holmes (silent for a minute): “Watson, you imbecile. Some bastard has stolen our tent.”

(A) Mechanism. Now we have pretty good understanding of the mechanisms underlying bird-song learning and production, central to which is ‘the song system’, a well-mapped neural circuitry of brain nuclei and their projections within the songbird brain.

(B) Function. Birds sing primarily to advertise their quality, with songs functioning as signals both to warn off rivals and attract mates.

(C) Development. Experimental investigations, such as rearing nestlings in captivity isolated from adults, have revealed that songbirds typically learn their songs early in life. The song is learned during a sensitive period, when birds are predisposed to learn the songs of conspecifics. The image shows sonograms of a typical wild chaffinch song and of the song of a chaffinch reared in isolation.

(D) Evolution. Comparative analyses have established that song features vary along phylogenetic lines, such clicks in the songs of orioles.

Bateson P, Laland KN (2013) Tinbergens Four Questions and Review. Trends Ecol Evol 28:712-718

Attributing human traits, emotions, intentions to non-human entities (in ethology, animals); polar bears and dogs.

It is an inherited trait of human being. There is some recognition on driving forces (e.g. Urquisa-Haas and Kortschal 2015) but regardless of the mechanisms behind its consequences for animal welfare, conservation and even as a potential constraint in animal behaviour research are important issue.

Urquiza-Haas EG, Kotrschal K (2015) The mind behind anthropomorphic thinking: Attribution of mental states to other species. Anim Behav 109:167–176. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.08.011