The Instinctive Reactions of Young Chicks 161 



situation " sight of fellow chicks below " by (after an amount 

 of hesitation varying roughly with the height) jumping off, 

 holding his stubby wings out and keeping right side up. He 

 lands on his feet almost every time and generally very 

 cleverly. A four days' chick will jump down a distance 

 eight times his own height without hurting himself a bit. If 

 one takes a chick two or three weeks old who has never had 

 a chance to jump up or down, and puts him in a box with 

 walls three times the height of the chick's back, he will 

 find that the chick will jump, or rather fly, nearly, if not 

 quite, over the wall, flapping his wings lustily and holding 

 on to the edge with his neck while he clambers over. Chicks 

 one day old will, in about 57 per cent of the cases, balance 

 themselves for five or six seconds when placed on a stiff, 

 perch. If eight or nine days old, they will, though never 

 before on any perch or anything like one, balance perfectly 

 for a minute or more. The muscular coordination required 

 is invoked immediately when the chick feels the situation 

 "feet on a perch." The strength is lacking in the first few 

 days. From the fifth or sixth day on chicks are also able 

 (their ability increases with age) to balance themselves on a 

 slowly swinging perch. 



Another complex coordination is seen in the somewhat re- 

 markable instinct of swimming. Chicks only a day or two 

 old will, if tossed into a pond, head straight for the shore and 

 swim rapidly to it. It is impossible to compare their move- 

 ments in so doing with those of ducklings, for the chick is 

 agitated, paddles his feet very fast and swims to get out, 

 not for swimming's sake. Dr. Bashford Dean, of Colum- 

 bia University, has suggested to me that the movements 

 may not be those of swimming, but only of running. At all 

 events, they are utterly different from those of an adult fowl. 

 In the case of the adult there is no vigorous instinct to strike 



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