Short Communications : — Zoology, 501 



[We have imparted the specimens, a small number of 

 them, to William Christy, jun., Esq., Clapham Road, and 

 the remainder to George Johnston, Esq., M.D., Berwick 

 upon Tweed, who will, we are sure, have pleasure, in sending 

 them farther north, to botanists who may be resident near 

 localities which assimilate to the Swiss one. 



Of Scheuchzena palustris L., of which Mr. Brown has 

 spoken in VI. 469., he has also given specimens. We erred 

 in speaking, in VI. 470., of " its Swiss habitat," as this species 

 has many habitats in Switzerland. The particular specimens 

 given by Mr. Brown have their habitat marked, " Schwar- 

 zenegg prope Thun, Junio, 1832."] 



Art. XI. Short Communications, 



Zoology. — Reason versus Instinct. — I have never felt 

 convinced, nor satisfied, with the limitation to which the 

 actions of animals are confined by the term instinct, as applied 

 to them. True, a chicken, for example, if hatched by steam, 

 and brought up by an " artificial mother," as Mowbray styles 

 the flannel succedaneum for a hen, would perform its offices 

 of incubation perfectly, and in due season, although it should 

 never have received instructions from its mother, or by com- 

 munication with any of its congeners : this is instinct. But 

 when circumstances occur which could never have been con- 

 templated as likely to befall it, by what name shall we desig- 

 nate the cause or motive which actuates its movements ? 

 A neighbour of ours, on whose word, I believe, I may safely 

 rely, related the following anecdote to me the other day. 

 His amateur farmyard, I should premise, is beautifully ar- 

 ranged, and always reminds me of that belonging to Joshua 

 Geddes, the glorious quaker in Redgauntlet, My neigh- 

 bour's pigsties are railed off on two sides of the yard, where 

 food in abundance awaits the happy y«r niente inmates; but, 

 as it was discovered that the fowls partook too largely of that 

 which was intended only for pigs, their wings were clipped, 

 in order to prevent them from flying over; and the operation 

 produced the desired result. One of the fowls, however, 

 discovered a method by which to baffle the contrivers of its 

 disappointment. Several pigs were loose in the yard, whose 

 movements were watched by the bird, and, as one of them 

 wandered near the intervening rail, it flew upon the back of 

 the animal, and thence easily gained the tops, over which it 

 fluttered into the enclosure, and thus obtained the desired 



K K 3 



