EDITOR'S TABLE, 



701 



tion considered was, How far is it 

 likely that the individual experiences 

 of parents are transmitted to off- 

 spring ? In discussing this ques- 

 tion Prof. Morgan gave the results 

 of some recent experiments hy him- 

 self and his students. A chick of a 

 common fowl, hatched in an incu- 

 bator, was secluded from pai'ental 

 care, and found to be destitute of 

 knowledge that water is good to 

 drink. The little creature would 

 wade in water, and only when it 

 pecked its toes, and so incidentally 

 thrust its bill in the water, did it fill 

 its mouth and turn up its head in 

 the familiar thirst-quenching atti- 

 tude. Prof. Morgan inferred that it 

 is only by imitating its mother or in 

 imitating another chick that drink- 

 ing is usually learned. Hence, as a 

 chick is not left to its own ignorance 

 in the matter, natural selection has 

 never had a chance to eliminate 

 birds through their not knowing 

 how to drink. From the fact that 

 the instinct to drink is not trans- 

 mitted in perfection, Prof. Morgan 

 argues that it is not the inheri- 

 tance of experience acquired dur- 

 ing the individual life, but the 

 natural selection of favorable va- 

 riations, that determines survival. 

 However, in the case of the mega- 

 pode of the Philippine Islands, which 

 is hatched in a mound of vegetable 

 matter without parental care, it must 

 be that the chick is born with per- 

 fect instinct as to drinking. 



Prof. Morgan found his chicks 

 born with an instinct to peck at no 

 matter what beads, pinheads were 

 as enticing as grain. One experi- 

 ment or two at most with a nauseous 

 caterpillar proved enough for care- 

 ful avoidance thereafter. Young 

 bullfinches left to themselves were 

 observed to pull primroses to pieces 

 in an utterly random fashion; but 

 some thirty trials taught them their 

 work perfectly, so that they came as 



expertly as adult birds at the drop of 

 sweet dew within the flower. Their 

 intelligence did not create a new 

 activity, but selected from a number 

 of indeterminate acts the one act 

 which was both useful and pleasant, 

 the impulse, and the impulse only, 

 being instinctive. 



A London bird fancier, in a large 

 way of business, was quoted by 

 Prof. Morgan as finding that young 

 linnets and thrushes brought up 

 among various other birds, never- 

 theless sang true ; young bullfinches, 

 in the same circumstances, imitated 

 their neighbors. A student of Prof. 

 Morgan's secluded a young bullfinch 

 from all opportunity of observing 

 nests : its first nest was true in form, 

 but not true in material, although 

 the usual material could have been 

 chosen by it; its second nest was 

 true in both form and material. A 

 cat taught by Prof. Morgan to re- 

 trieve did not transmit the talent to 

 its family. There are on record 

 thr-ee cases of dogs and one of a 

 cat which did transmit to their off- 

 spring the capacity to " beg." 



Prof. Morgan is to continue ex- 

 periments the prime interest of which 

 is in denoting that natural history 

 has entered upon a new stage. In- 

 stead of merely repeating old obser- 

 vations of birds and beasts, instead 

 of gathering their nests, eggs, and 

 skins as thousands have done before, 

 the naturalist, young or old, can 

 easily carry forward experiments in- 

 tended to throw light on unsettled 

 questions of profound interest. He 

 can observe how a bird varies its 

 song or the building of its nest un- 

 der circumstances which exclude 

 the possibility of imitation. He can 

 note the degree of domestication, 

 very great in the case of the quail, 

 possible with easily secured speci- 

 mens of wild birds. He can ascer- 

 tain whether " begging " or pointing 

 taught a dog, and unknown before 



