INSTINCT VERSUS REASON. Ni 
Who shall say this is instinct? Who shall say it is 
not reason? May it not be a combination of both, 
strengthened and inculcated by hereditary laws? 
Again! who can explain the reason why ducks can 
tell to a certainty what species or kind of hawk is 
rapidly approaching? How do they know the species 
that will catch them on the water, the kind that will 
chase them only on the wing, or those which will do 
both? If the first, they will fly around him or away; 
in the second, they will run along the water and dive 
as he dips at them, anything but fly; ‘whereas, in the 
latter, they will dive or fly out of the way, hurrying to 
seek cover to hide in. Art must be met by art! Fraud 
by experience drawn from reasoning! And that rare 
presence of mind used to avert danger in moments oi 
extreme peril, which has been engrafted in our brains 
from past experiences, either of ourselves or others, 
emanates by a flash from the brain and is instanta- 
neously acted upon. Why not so with the duck fam- 
ily, even if in minor proportions, driven, harassed and 
wounded upon all sides, day by day, night by night, 
month after month, until they find no rest for the 
soles of their feet from north to south and east to 
west? Would they not naturally increase their 
cautious, observing powers on approaching anything 
uncanny, or capable of exciting the least suspicion; 
their education being acquired by force of circum- 
stances? Why should not the whole family of game 
birds to a great extent become as enlightened in self- 
preservation as we? They from instinct verging into 
reason, we from reasoning backed up by experience 
and experiments? Instinct is a natural attribute; rea- 
son is the offspring of experience. 
