°'o6 ■] in Cuckoos and Migyaiion in Birds. MQ 



We also have the evidence of Mr. Tegetmeier, the great animal 

 collector, who, when asked what he thought of the wonderful 

 instinct of the homing Pigeon, declared that a " homing" instinct 

 was all nonsense. * A Pigeon goes by sight and reason, as we do. 

 Take it from home more than 50 miles and it is completely lost, but 

 if you train it by degrees, beginning with a few miles, it will learn 

 to iind its way over long distances. It can see 50 miles, and so by 

 taking longer and longer flights has been taught to fly from London 

 to Brussels. Tegetmeier was largely consulted by Darwin, from 

 whom he received over 160 letters. In an article by Mr. F. M. Littler, 

 cited in The Emu, vol. iii., pp. 243 and 123, we have corroborative 

 evidence of my contention that birds do reason. Then we also 

 have evidence that a bird has to be taught its habits and methods, 

 since it is recorded that, when clutches of eggs of British birds 

 were taken from England to New Zealand and hatched out there 

 by foster-parents, the young so reared did not know how to construct 

 their nests after the fashion of their parents and ancestors, there 

 being no similar species to themselves in New Zealand to teach 

 them. Evidence such as this goes to prove the hypothesis that a 

 young Cuckoo cannot reason out the necessity for ridding the nest 

 of its other occupants, but that nature has provided the requisite 

 sensitiveness of the nerves of the skin, which convey the necessary 

 stimulus to the muscles, which in turn cause the ejectment. 

 Although the nerves are co-ordinated with the brain, it is unnecessary 

 that the section of the brain governing the faculties of reason or 

 instinct should be called into operation. Then, again, the foster- 

 parent has to place the food in the mouth of the young Cuckoo, 

 and were it endowed at this stage with faculties of reason so highly 

 developed, then it would assuredly bring these into action and help 

 itself by taking its food from its foster-parents whilst in such a 

 ravenously hungry stage of its existence. A further proof that 

 instincts are taught may be proved by human analogy. According 

 to Melbourne and Sydney daily papers, the mother of a child in 

 New South Wales left her infant daily in the fowl-yard for a 

 lengthened period and did not attend to the infant except to 

 occasionally feed it there. It thus herded with the fowls and 

 acquired their habits and instincts or reasoning capacity. When 

 rescued the child was observed trying to chivy the hens around 

 the yard in imitation of the rooster, and afterwards, when taken 

 to a children's hospital, it endeavoured to perch on the railing of 

 its cot, flap its wings, and crow. 



By careful study one is led step by step to note that the general 

 conception of instinct is shown to i)e inconsistent — that is, il in- 

 stinct be accepted as implying an unchangeable, inborn, or inherited 

 impulse of nature bestowed for the j^reservation and j^ropagation 

 of animals, the manifestations of which are unconscious. This is 

 at best but a blind way of dealing with the question. Accurate 

 study shows that the greater part of the actions attributed to 

 instinct may be understood in a very different way as arising from 

 training, and afterwards from consideration, cxijcrience, free choice, 



