SENSES, INSTINCTS, AND INTELLIGENCE 343 



as to the relative importance of " nature " and " nurture " 

 requires careful observation and experiment. 



Some young woodpeckers show notable expertness in 

 opening fir cones to get at the seeds. This might be 

 referred to a special instinctive capacity, like that which 

 enables the young coot to swim when it first tumbles into 

 water. Or it might be referred to sheer cleverness, such as 

 the inquisitively experimental weaver-birds illustrate. Yet 

 neither interpretation is quite correct. For we have to 

 recognise that the parent woodpeckers bring their young 

 ones first the seeds themselves, then partly opened cones, 

 and finally intact ones. Thus, as Professor L. T. Hobhouse 

 says in his " Mind in Evolution " (19 15), "the method of 

 preparing the family dinner is at least as much a tradition 

 as an instinct." It is an outcome of teaching and learning. 



We cannot leave the bird's mind without referring to 

 the well-known cleverness of rooks and parrots, and raising 

 the interesting question how far this is due to their social 

 life and their habit of talking a good deal. Both rooks and 

 parrots have finely developed brains, and it was probably 

 this possession, shared by non-gregarious relatives (such 

 as many crows), that led to their sociality. But these things 

 often work round in circles. Given fine brains, sociality 

 and loquacity may follow ; but sociality and the possibility 

 of some talking together form appropriate sieves for the 

 sifting out and retention of progressive variations in the 

 direction of nimbler wits. A great law of evolution is that 

 to him that hath more shall be given. 



Behind and beneath the modes of behaviour — whether 

 instinctive or intelligent or both — there are the primary 

 appetencies of " hunger " and " love." They have their 

 physiological aspects — the bodily " urges " which demand 

 satisfaction ; but they have also their psychological aspects — 

 the longings and desires of the subjective life. Exaggera- 

 tions of the one aspect lead us to make too much of the 

 empty stomach and the tumescent reproductive organs. 

 Exaggerations of the other aspect lead us to make too much 

 of " the self-preservative instinct " and the " love " of 



