i894. INSTINCT IN CHICKS AND DUCKLINGS. 211 



side, then on the other, and seemed uneasy. He was all right again, 

 however, in half-an-hour, but did not seem keen after a bee I offered 

 him ; nor would he take any notice of an Eristalis. 



Seventh Day. — Chicks (Group A). — I threw in a number of bits 

 of red-brown worsted, one to two inches long. They were seized 

 with eagerness and eaten with avidity, I could not satisfy them 

 with worsted worms, and desisted in the attempt lest the diet should 

 produce unpleasant effects on their little gizzards. I left, however, 

 one four-inch worsted worm, of which the chicks seemed afraid. 

 Presently the bolder one seized it, ran off with it chased by the others, 

 escaped from the pen, reached a secluded corner of my study, and 

 with great efforts swallowed it to the last half-inch. The same chick 

 pecked repeatedly at something near the corner of the turned-up news- 

 paper which then formed the wall of my pen (I now use wire netting). 

 This I found to be the number of the page. He then transferred his 

 attention to the corner of the paper, which he could just reach. 

 Seizing this he pulled at it, bending it down and thus forming a 

 breach in the wall of my experimental poultry-yard, through which he 

 escaped. I caught him and put him back near the same spot. He 

 went at once to the corner, pulled it down, and escaped. I caught 

 him and put him back on the other side of the pen. Presently he 

 sauntered round to the corner, began pecking again, and escaped. I 

 then pulled it up out of his reach. He pecked at it, but soon desisted. 

 This is a good, simple example of the intelligent utilisation of a chance 

 experience. Group A, including this chick, were near the close of 

 their seventh day returned to the yard from which the eggs were 

 obtained through the kindness of my friend, Mr. John Budgett. They 

 were adopted by a broody hen, and were reported to seem afraid 

 of her. 



Very noticeable at this stage is the effect of any sudden noise — a 

 sneeze, clapping one's hands, a sharp chord on the violin ; or of suddenly 

 pitching among the chicks a piece of screwed-up paper. They 

 scatter and crouch, or sometimes simply crouch down where they are. 

 The constant piping cheep-cheep ceases, and for a moment there is 

 dead stillness, each bird silent and motionless. In a minute or so, up 

 they get and resume their cheeping notes. 



Ducklings. — I repeated the experiment with the dry tin. Again 

 they ran to it, shovelling along the bottom with their beaks and 

 squatting down in it. But they sooner gave up the attempt to find 

 satisfaction in a dry bath. 



Eighth Day. — Chicks. — On this day I noticed for the first time 

 the chicks crouching down and making all the movements of sand- 

 washing or dusting themselves in the way many birds affect. There 

 was only a little sand strewn over the newspaper and not much good 

 came of the operation. Still it was persisted in for a quarter of an 

 hour at a time. I tried these too (Group B) with worsted worms. 

 They seemed to give complete satisfaction, and there was many a 



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