PROGRESS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 173 



except in remote regions, where the ingenious bird still works on 

 in the primitive way. So, too, in America, birds in constructing 

 their nests everywhere turn to their account the products of 

 human industry and keep abreast with the progress of the age. 

 The materials employed correspond to the contemporary state of 

 civilization, and mark the periods of industrial development 

 through which the human race has passed. The wagtails, in a 

 watch-making district of Switzerland, have learned to build their 

 nests of fine steel shavings ; a nest of this kind, if preserved, 

 would indicate to the inhabitants of that country a thousand 

 years hence the kind of industry that was carried on by their 

 ancestors. Sjjarrows, which usually build in chinks of walls or 

 under roofs, if forced to build their nests in trees or other un- 

 sheltered places, cover them with a sort of hood to keep out the 

 rain. Buffon, who records this fact, adds : Uinstinct se ma^iifest 

 done ici par un sentiment iwesque raisonne et qui suppose au 

 moins la comiparaiso^i de deux petites idees. In the presence of 

 such clear manifestations of thought and reflection, it seems ab- 

 surd to speak of a " sentiment almost reasoned," or to indulge in 

 condescending baby-talk about " two little ideas," 



Apiarists now provide their hives with artificial comb for the 

 storage of honey, and the bees seem glad to be relieved of the 

 labor of making cells as their predecessors had done. Instead of 

 gathering propolis from the buds of plants, the workers stop their 

 hives with the mixture of resin and turpentine with which the 

 arboriculturist salves wounded trees, and readily substitute oat- 

 meal for pollen if they can get it. These facts, and many others 

 which might be adduced, suffice to prove that animals avail them- 

 selves of new discoveries and easier methods in order to increase 

 the comforts and conveniences of life. 



Even instincts, which seem firmly rooted and are regarded as 

 characteristic of the class, are by no means so persistent as is 

 commonly supposed. The individual inherits, but soon loses 

 them if they are not brought into early exercise. A duck or 

 gosling, if reared in the house until it is two or three months old, 

 has no greater liking for the water than a chicken, and' if thrown 

 into a pond will scramble out, showing signs of great fear of the 

 element to which its web-feet are particularly adapted. An arti- 

 ficially hatched chicken does not attach itself to a hen more than 

 to any other animal, but follows its first associate, a child, a cat, 

 or a dog. 



Buffon denies that animals are susceptible of what he calls 

 " the perfectibility of the species." " They are to-day," he says, 

 " what they always have been, and always will be, and nothing 

 more ; because, as their education is purely individiial, they can 

 only transmit to their young what they themselves have received 



