CHICKS HATCHED FROM ALCOHOLIZED EGGS 119 



Drinking Reaction 



A watch glass containing a few drops of water was used as 

 a stimulus for the drinking reaction. This glass stood on a 

 square of smooth, white paper, ten by ten inches. The chicks 

 were placed one at a time on the paper, six inches from the 

 glass, and a record made of the time before they drank and 

 of their manner of doing it. 



The drinking reactions of twenty chicks of the first set were 

 observed, seven on the third and thirteen on the fourth day. 

 Only one of the seven three-day old chicks drank and that one 

 apparently found the way by accident, first walking into the 

 glass and then drinking. Five of the thirteen four-day old 

 chicks, three alcohol and two normal, walked to the glass and 

 drank, one drinking at once, the others after a short interval. 

 Three, one normal and two alcohol, afterwards performed the 

 drinking reaction on the smooth, white paper and the edge 

 of the glass. One chick pecked at the water, then swallowed 

 and immediately performed the drinking reaction. The others 

 were placed close to the glass after a long interval during which 

 they had run about the table and the water was ruffled as in 

 the Breed 7 experiment. The chicks then drank. 



The same apparatus and method was used with the second 

 set of chicks. The twenty-two chicks of this set found the 

 water by accident, walking into the watch glass, or pecking at 

 it and then drinking. One alcohol chick, No. 32, walked into 

 the glass and immediately made the drinking reaction on the 

 white paper on which the glass stood, walked out of the glass 

 on to the paper, then walked back into the glass and went 

 through the movements of the drinking reaction, scratching in 

 the water at intervals. The touch of the water on the chick's 

 feet had evidently served to start the drinking reflex. There 

 was no difference in the behavior of alcohol and normal chicks 

 of either set. 



Reaction to Heights 



Thorndike 8 , experimenting with reaction to heights with 

 chicks ninety-four hours old, found the chicks hesitated for a 

 longer and longer interval before jumping, as the height of 



7 Breed, F. S. The Development of Certain Instincts and Habits in Chicks. 

 Behav. Monog., vol. I, no. 1, 1911. 



8 Thorndike, E. L. Animal Intelligence, 1911, p. 159. 



