A CHAPTER ON INSTINCT. 67 



this time the Fieldfare, wherever a thorn hedge was left in a state fit to 

 bear fruit, was very abundant. The common Wild Duck not so common, 

 but immense flocks of Teal resorted to Oroxby Lake. 



Some very severe weather set in again on the 10th, of January, 1856 j 

 the thermometer on the 13th. and 14th. indicating eighteen degrees of frost. 

 I understand one of those now rare birds, the Bittern, has been killed 

 below Louth. I have heard of no Swans, Some flocks of Wild Geese 

 passed over on the 9th., ijidicating, I expected, a long blast, as they are 

 seldom seen here so late in the season; but the heavy rain of to-day, (21st.,) 

 and the extraordinary mildness of the latter part of last week, causes one 

 to think more of green peas than Ducks. 



By-the-by, a friend told me last week that he had been asked to look 

 at a rare bird just shot, somewhere, I believe, near Louth; from his des- 

 cription probably the Smew, (Mergus albellus,) in its white plumage. 



Snow Buntings, (Emberiza nivalis,) have been numerous. I have made 

 one expedition to the sea-coast near Tetney, (the same spot which you, Mr. 

 Editor, and I visited in company a few years ago, and which circumstance 

 I dare say you well remember,) (I shall not forget it in a hurry. — F. 0. M.) 

 but did not get much to reward my trouble — innumerable Tringse, Gulls, 

 Redshanks, flights of Ducks, all too wary to come within shot. I obtained 

 Crex porzana, (Spotted Rail,) in the parish of Little Coates in returning. 



Such, except watching a few Herons wending their way to their accustomed 

 trout streams, one of which I procured, has been the whole of my orni- 

 thological experience of the past season. 



Rectory, Swinhope, January 2i2nd., 1856. 



A CHAPTER 01^ INSTINCT. 



BY THE REV. F. 0, MORRIS. 



There are two modes of reasoning, which may be adopted in an enquiry 

 into the mysterious subject of instinct, the analytical and the synthetical. 

 In using the analytical mode we reason from the advanced stage up to 

 what may be called first principles. In using the synthetical we adopt 

 an opposite procedure. 



It seems to be thought that a knowledge of the higher organizations is 

 best to be gained by the latter of these two methods, namely, by begin- 

 ning with those forms which are the lowest in the scale of creation, 

 and so proceeding upwards gradually, step by step, to those which are 

 more and more complicated, until we reach those which, so far as we are 

 able to judge, are the highest. 



There is indeed one diificulty, or rather one cause for hesitation, in the 



VOL. \i. I 



