The Instinctive Reactions of Young Chicks 159 



INSTINCTIVE REACTIONS TO DISTANCE, DIRECTION, 



SIZE, ETC. 



I have purposely chosen this awkward heading rather 

 than the simple one, Space-Perception, because I do not wish 

 to imply that there is in the young chick such consciousness 

 of space-facts as there is in human beings. All that will be 

 shown here is that he reacts appropriately in the presence of 

 space-facts, reacts in a fashion which would in the case of a 

 man go with genuine perception of space. 



If one puts a chick on top of a box in sight of his fellows 

 below, the chick will regulate his conduct by the height of 

 the box. To be definite, we may take the average chick of 

 about 95 hours. If the height is less than 10 inches, he will 

 jump down as soon as you put him up. At 16 inches he will 

 jump in from 5 seconds to 3 or 4 minutes. At 22 inches he 

 will still jump down, but after more hesitation. At 27 J 

 inches 6 chicks out of eight at this age jumped within 5 min- 

 utes. At 39 inches the chick will NOT jump down. The 

 numerical values given here would, of course, vary with the 

 health, development, hunger and degree of lonesomeness of 

 the chick. All that they are supposed to show is that at any 

 given age the chick without experience of heights regulates 

 his conduct rather accurately in accord with the space-fact 

 of distance which confronts him. The chick does not peck 

 at objects remote from him, does not, for instance, confuse 

 a bird a score of feet away with a fly near by, or try to get 

 the moon inside his bill. Moreover, he reacts in pecking 

 with considerable accuracy at the very start. Lloyd Mor- 

 gan has noted that in his very first efforts the chick often 

 fails to seize the object, though he hits it, and on this ground 

 has denied the perfection of the instinct. But, as a matter 

 of fact, the pecking reaction may be as perfect at birth as it is 



