2 NOTES AND COMMENTS [july 



psychology. He has himself published observations of interest and 

 value — modestly asserting that he " has recorded more experiments 

 (not to mention scores which he has not described) than all other 

 investigators together, if we except those working on insects." But 

 in analysis and interpretation he has not shown himself strong. It 

 is questionable whether his discussion of imitation and memory, for 

 example, have any real bearing upon Prof. Thorndike's contentions. 

 Indeed, at one point he seems to dimly realise this, for he says : " To 

 be sure, there is a sort of deliberate, studied, high-class imitation 

 possible to man, but beyond the reach of animals." But he does not 

 appear to grasp the fact that it is just the occurrence in animals (save, 

 perhaps, the Primates) of such imitation which Prof. Thorndike ques- 

 tions. Speaking of " free floating ideas," Prof. Mills says : " The 

 believer in evolution will demand that, in this and other cases, in 

 which qualities man possesses are denied to animals, there be the 

 clearest proofs given. The burden of proof lies with those who deny 

 them." With this assertion many psychologists entirely disagree ; and 

 Prof. Wesley Mills' ipse dixit, without adequate discussion, will not 

 lead them, we imagine, to alter their opinion. It is strange that Prof. 

 Lloyd Morgan's name should be mentioned as that of one who holds 

 the view " that we must always adopt the simplest explanations of an 

 animal's action," seeing that in his " Introduction to Comparative 

 Psychology" (p. 54), he urges that the simplest explanation is not that 

 which we should necessarily accept. 



Prof. Thorndike's article deals with young chicks. His observa- 

 tions tend, on the whole, to confirm those of previous investigators, but 

 add some interesting facts. The newly-hatched birds were found to 

 peck at small (2 mm.) squares of coloured paper on backgrounds of 

 white and black. The observations are not sufficient in number to 

 justify conclusions as to colour preference ; but they suffice to estab- 

 lish the fact that the patches, either from their colour or their light 

 intensity, afford the requisite stimulus to the pecking response. Mr. 

 Thorndike found that chicks from ten to twenty days old ate bees 

 greedily, " first mashing them down on the ground violently in a rather 

 dextrous manner." It is probable, however, that they would not have 

 touched them had they been stung then or at an earlier stage in their 

 experience. He makes a point here against Prof. Lloyd Morgan, who 

 states that a young bird dropped a bee, shook his head, and wiped his 

 bill on the ground, " probably because he had tasted the poison." This 

 statement, indeed, hardly seems to accord with Lloyd Morgan's own 

 later observations of the eating of wasps and bees by young birds of 

 several kinds. Other noteworthy facts which Prof. Thorndike records, 

 are that young chicks placed in water will swim, and that, prior to 

 experience, they will not leap down from a height of 39 inches, though 

 they will do so at once from a height of 10 inches or less, and after 

 some hesitation from heights of 16, 22, and 27 inches. In general 



