1. This is little short of jumping with a fagot on their back into fire.

2. Lead researcher Joel Fagot said the study provided important new information on how memory systems have evolved. ‘Birds and monkeys differ considerably in physiology and evolutionary history,‘ he said. ‘Despite millions of years of divergent evolution they demonstrate highly similar memory profiles.‘ He concluded that the different paths species set out on hundreds of millions of years ago ‘may have mainly changed memory capacities but have had little impact on basic memory processes and memory dynamics.‘ The study is not the first to shed light on some of the remarkable abilities of pigeons.