INSTINCT IN YOUNG BIRDS. 5 6i 



INSTINCT IN YOUNG BIKDS. 



Br D. A. SPALDING. 



WITH regard to instinct we have yet to ascertain the facts. Do 

 the animals exhibit untaught skill and innate knowledge ? 

 May not the supposed examples of instinct be after all but the results 

 of rapid learning and imitation ? The controversy on this subject has 

 been chiefly concerning the perceptions of distance and direction by 

 the eye and the ear. Against the instinctive character of these per- 

 ceptions it is argued that, as distance means movement, locomotion, 

 the very essence of the idea is such as cannot be taken in by the eye 

 or ear ; that what the varying sensations of sight and hearing corre- 

 spond to, must be got at by moving over the ground by experience. 

 The results, however, of experiments on chickens were wholly in favor 

 of the instinctive nature of these perceptions. Chickens kept in a state 

 of blindness by various devices, from one to three days, when placed 

 in the light under a set of carefully-prepared conditions, gave conclu- 

 sive evidence against the theory that the perceptions of distance and 

 direction by the eye are the result of associations formed in the expe- 

 rience of each individual life. Often, at the end of two minutes, they 

 followed with their eyes the movements of crawling insects, tuiming 

 their heads with all the precision of an old fowl. In from two to fif- 

 teen minutes they pecked at some object, showing, not merely an in- 

 stinctive perception of distance, but an original ability to measure dis- 

 tance with something like infallible accuracy. If beyond the reach of 

 their necks, they walked or ran up to the object of their pursuit, and 

 may be said to have invariably struck it, never missing by more than 

 a hair's-breadth ; this, too, when the specks at which they struck were 

 no bigger than the smallest visible dot of an %. To seize between the 

 points of the mandible at the very instant of striking seemed a more 

 difficult operation. Though at times they seized and swallowed an in- 

 sect at the first attempt, more frequently they struck five or six times, 

 lifting once or twice before they succeeded in swallowing their first 

 food. To take, by way of illustration, the observations on a single 

 case a little in detail : A chicken, at the end of six minutes, after hav- 

 ing its eyes unveiled, followed with its head the movements of a fly 

 twelve inches distant ; at ten minutes, the fly, coming within reach of 

 its neck, was seized and swallowed at the first stroke ; at the end of 

 twenty minutes it had not attempted to walk a step. It was then, 

 placed on rough ground within sight and call of a hen, with chickens 

 of its own age. After standing chirping for about a minute, it went 

 straight toward the hen, displaying as keen a perception of the quali- 

 ties of the outer world as it was ever likely to possess in after-life. It 

 never required to knock its head against a stone to discover that there- 

 tol. ii. 36 



