328 THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS chap. 



reflex action. Next let us look for some examples 

 of reasoning power or intelligence in birds. If they 

 learn by experience that men in their neighbourhood 

 do not shoot on Sunday, and if, in consequence, they 

 are much less cautious on that day than on week- 

 days, the)' are showing intelligence. In the same 

 way Pheasants learn by experience to distinguish a 

 rifle from a shot-gun. The former has no terrors for 

 them, and they will feed quietly while the bullets 

 pass over them. I have seen the same complete 

 indifference to the noise of rifle-shooting in the 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker. To learn wisdom by 

 individual experience is of the very essence of 

 reason. Without intelligence or reasoning power of 

 a kind, a Redpoll could hardly learn to pull up his 

 bucket of water when he is thirsty. Probably he 

 does not consciously connect the means and the end. 

 He is like the man who puts a penny in the slot and 

 takes his piece of chocolate without any knowledge 

 of the machinery, the working of which has given 

 him what he wanted. He connects the penny and 

 the chocolate, but does not know by what process the 

 one produces the other. 



There is no doubt that some actions are purely 

 instinctive, but it is comparatively seldom that a 

 " little dose " of reason is absent. Intelligence often 

 modifies instinct. A caterpillar who weaves a small 

 web of silk from which to suspend his chrysalis will, 

 if he finds himself in a box with a muslin lid, 

 economise in silk and hang his chrysalis from the 

 muslin. A bird will modify the form of his nest 

 to suit changed circumstances. Instinct is in fact 



