8 HAROLD C. BINGHAM 



type, it is rather surprising that so Httle chick behavior has 

 found its way into print. Apparently the animal anecdotists 

 saw in the behavior of the chicken only acts of stupidity, rather 

 than intelligence, and as a result of their eulogistic inclinations 

 they neglected to report such facts. The chick does not fill 

 the place of a household pet; hence the stock of chick stories like 

 that related above has generally been unknown to the reporters 

 of animal anecdotes. 



Despite the tendency of Aristotle to report unusual facts 

 about animals, he has said very little about the chick. The 

 brief description of it is typical of his usual method of describing 

 animal behavior. He naively says : 



Young hens are the first to lay, and they do so at the beginning of spring and 

 lay more eggs than the older hens, but the eggs of the younger hens are compara- 

 tively small. As a general rule, if hens get no brooding they pine and sicken. 

 After copulation hens shiver and shake themselves, and often kick rubbish about 

 all around them — and this, by the way, they do sometimes after laying. . . 

 (1). 



With such generalization, Aristotle's description of chick be- 

 havior ends. His metaphysical interests did not encourage 

 intensive observations that would lead to a description of the 

 fowl's perceptions. 



Offering little or nothing for the pure naturalists to eulogize, 

 therefore, chick behavior is not reported until the scientific 

 spirit spreads to the field of animal behavior. Naturally, then, 

 the first publications involving the chick are those of the semi- 

 experimentalists. Stimulated, as they must have been, by the 

 theory of natural selection, one might well expect these first 

 observations to be turned upon the instincts. From a consid- 

 eration of Inherited types of behavior, it Is a logical step to 

 individual modifiability. And the Investigation of habit forma- 

 tion, involving the sensory equipment of the organism, finally 

 leads to studies of perceptual discrimination. 



Early reference to the chick's vision is incidentally made 

 by Spaulding (28), representing the semi-experimental group, 

 whose observations were primarily centered upon the nature of 

 the pecking and drinking reactions. In a general way, Preyer 

 (25) observes that the perfection of sight In newly hatched 

 fowls is astonishing when compared with the Imperfection of 

 this sense In newly born humans. The work of Romanes (26), 



