492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
has already appeared in The Emu.* The actions of the blind, 
featherless, infant cuckoo on this occasion certainly showed no sign 
of being due to reflex action, but on the contrary appeared to me 
a marvelous and almost uncanny exhibition of instinct and subcon- 
scious reasoning. If it be objected that the term instinct 1s meaning- 
less, I can only reply that there are many things in nature to which 
we attach convenient labels, although they still remain beyond our 
understanding. 
@Vol. 5, Part 1, July, 1905. 
