How to Read a Book

by Monica Wood

“This work is not a curiosity.” His voice is deep, with a hint of static, as if the birds taught him to speak rather than the other way around. “No, of course.” Like the birds, I find myself desperate to please him. “What we do here matters to the greater scientific community.” I just nod, waiting for the worst. “Through intelligently conceived studies and impeccably executed experiments,” he says, “we have revealed previously unknown avian cognitive abilities.” He says we, but I’m pretty sure he means I. “These birds communicate. They think. They count. They solve. They decide. Most significantly, they say what they mean, and mean what they say; a skill with which human animals struggle profoundly.” His whole face—keen and fearsome—tightens. “This is my life’s work, to demonstrate higher-order cognition in animals once dismissed as birdbrains.”