As the human companion to an African grey parrot, I have to say that: Ramses (my dear feathered friend) sings more beautifully than I, and he knows what he sings. He asks for his favorite foods - piñon, cherries, almonds. He can use over 200 words and phrases in context. He has even come up with a real joke! A bird joke! He tells the joke to anyone he trusts. Ramses invents songs, riffs on his favorite tunes, sometimes whistles or sings something completely new, and always beautiful. Humans aren't the only purveyors of art. We are artistic, but just one animal out of who-knows-how-many who can toss vowel and feather and heart to the wind. Anyway, I know nothing about evolution or nothing about anything ,really. Just wanted to talk about my parrot.
Birds are definitely the other great artists of the animal kingdom. If you've never seen videos of a bower bird or a bird of paradise dancing for their mates, its a sight to behold. Re: Wallace, he was writing in the mid to late 19th c. At that time, it wasn't even universally accepted that blacks could be taught to read, so its no surprise that many people would think of humans as the only species that could create.