ACTIONS OF ANIMALS n 



venient. If anything looks like an intelligent act this 

 surely does. But in this case appearances are deceptive. 

 It sometimes happens that a hen partridge acts in 

 this manner before her eggs are hatched. Under such 

 circumstances the pretence of a broken wing is not 

 only useless, but positively harmful, since it probably 

 directs the attention of the intruder to her white eggs. 

 This feigning of injury would thus appear to be a 

 purely instinctive act, a course of behaviour dictated 

 by natural selection. Mr. Edmund Selous discusses 

 the origin of this peculiar habit in that admirable book 

 entitled Bird Watching, to which I would refer those 

 who are interested in the matter. Instances such as 

 these, of acts which are only apparently purposeful, 

 could easily be multiplied. They should prevent our 

 rushing to the conclusion that because a cat, or dog, 

 or horse behaves in a sensible manner under certain 

 conditions, it is exercising intelligence. Natural 

 selection has brought instinct to such perfection that 

 many instinctive actions are very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish from those which are intelligent. 



