212 Recent Literature. [a^hi 



just mentioned, condition the feeding reaction [i. e., on seeing his mate he 

 proceeds to offer her food]. On the part of the female we have the infra-or- 

 ganic (hunger) stimulus and the visual stimulus induced by the movements 

 of the male [i. e., the female, being hungry, is willing to be fed]. The male 

 disgorges until there is a cessation of the excessive intra-organic pressure, 

 at which time his feeding movements cease and the female may strike his 

 beak in vain. The female in her turn feeds until there is both a cessation 

 of hunger and a normal intra-organic pressure established. If this takes 

 place before the male is ready, he in turn attempts to further stimulate the 

 female by a slight change in behavior (i. e., ' coaxing' by tapping the female 

 and putting his beak down near her)." 1 



In the case of the noddies: "After the egg is laid, a marked change 

 appears in the behavior of both the male and female." Before this period 

 the birds are shy and will not permit a near approach; later on they will 

 viciously attack a human intruder, or will sit on the egg and allow them- 

 selves to be caught. In explanation: "It may be said here that the 

 stimulus to the change is to be sought for in the tactical and visual impulses 

 aroused by the egg," or in what, in ordinary parlance, would be termed 

 parental solicitude. The male now no longer feeds the female, each bird 

 taking equal turns at brooding the egg. A tabular statement is given 

 of the shifts made at three nests of noddies for May 21, 22, and 23. The 

 behavior of brooding noddies is thus summarized: "(1) The presence of 

 the egg brings about a change in the distribution of labor between the sexes ; 

 (2) the male no longer feeds the female but each sex separately obtains its 

 food; (3) the egg is brooded constantly night and day by both sexes, the 

 male and female relieving each other at intervals varying from 30 minutes 

 to 5 hours, the average interval being in the neighborhood of 2 hours; (4) 

 the most significant general reaction caused by the presence of the egg is 

 the change in the disposition of the birds." 



1 This is not offered in personal criticism of Dr. Watson's excellent paper, but as a 

 protest against the pedantry shown in nearly all modern research along new lines, 

 where a new vocabulary is often invented for the expression of common-place 

 knowledge. New terms are frequently needed for the expression of new facts, 

 new processes, new hypotheses, but how often are well-known facts or principles 

 hidden or obscured to all but the specialist by being clothed in a new verbiage. The 

 science of ecology — the relation of the organism to its environment — e. g., is bur- 

 dened by pedantic expressions for previously observed and intelligently recorded con- 

 ditions and relations, which are restated in new and often hypertechnical terms, 

 with the air of their being a new contribution to knowledge. Text-books of the 

 subject are necessarily accompanied with glossaries for the definition of the new 

 terms employed, since they are not to be found in even the latest and most up-to- 

 date dictionaries, while some of them would puzzle a linguist to determine their 

 etymology and significance. The above annotated excerpt from Dr. Watson's paper 

 merely illustrates the tendency to pedantic jargon in many of the newer lines of 

 research. Dr. Watson is of course writing as a specialist in animal psychology, for 

 other specialists in this field of research — not for the layman nor especially for 

 ornithologists — and it is but natural that he should employ the vocabulary approved 

 by his colleagues. 



