322 On Animal Instinct: in its Relation to the Mind of Man. 



diving birds. The young Dipper was immediately lost to sight among 

 some weeds, and so long did it remain under water that I feared it must 

 be drowned. But in due time it reappeared all right, and, being recap- 

 tured, was replaced in the nest. 



Later in the season on a secluded lake in one of .the Hebrides, I 

 observed a Dundiver, or female of the Red-breasted Merganser {Mergin' 

 Serrator) with her brood of young ducklings. On giving chase in the 

 boat, we soon found that the young, although not above a fortnight 

 old, had such extraordinary powers of swimming and diving that it 

 was almost impossible to capture them. The distance they went under 

 water, and the unexpected places in which they emerged baffled all 

 our efforts for a considerable time. At last one of the brood made for 

 the shore, with the object of hiding among the grass and heather 

 which fringed the margin of the lake; We pursued it as closely as we 

 could, but when the little bird gained the shore, our boat was still 

 about twenty yards off. Long drought had left a broad margin of 

 small flat stones and mud between the water and the usual bank. I 

 saw the little bird run up about a couple of yards from the water, and 

 then suddenly disappear. Knowing what was likely to be enacted, I 

 kept my eye fixed on the~ spot ; and when the boat was run upon the 

 beach, I proceeded to find and pick up the chick. But on reaching 

 the place of disappearance, no sign of the young Merganser was to be 

 seen. The closest scrutiny, with the certain knowledge that it was 

 there, failed to enable me to detect it. Proceeding cautiously forwards, 

 I soon became convinced that I had already overshot the mark ; and, 

 on turning round it was only to see the bird rise like an apparition 

 from the stones, and dashing past the stranded boat, regain the lake, — 

 where, having now recovered its wind, it instantly dived and disap- 

 peared. The tactical skill of the whole of this manoeuvre, and the 

 snccess with which it was executed, were greeted with loud cheers 

 from the whole party; and our admiration was not diminished when 

 we remembered that some two weeks before that time the little 

 performer had been coiled uj) inside the shell of an egg, and that 

 about a month before it was nothing but a mass of albumen and of 

 fatty oils. 



The third case of animal instinct which I shall here mention was of 

 a different but of an equally common kind. In walking along the side 

 of a river with overhanging banks, I came suddenly on a common 

 Wild Duck (A)ias Boschus) whose young were just out. Springing 

 from under the bank, she fluttered out into the stream with loud cries 

 and with all the struggles to escape of a helplessly wounded bird. To 

 simulate the effects of suffering from disease, or from strong emotion, 



