280 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



INSTINCT. 



To THE EDITOR OF Science. Some remarks appended 

 to my letter, published in Science No. XIL, on the subject 

 of Prof. Morgan's views on "Instinct" by " The Writer of 

 the Note," in view of the importance of the subject, are 

 worthy of further consideration. 



Before drawing conclusions from observations on 

 domestic animals, it is well to consider similar facts in 

 connection with their wild congeners, especially if such 

 conclusions are of a far-reaching character, and it cannot 

 be too well borne in mind that our experiments are very 

 clumsy imitations of nature in a large proportion of cases. 



If food be set down in considerable quantity before 

 newly -hatched chicks, and in a vessel similar to that in 

 which water is usually held, they will be relatively slow 

 to recognise and eat such food, but in a wild state the 

 congeners of the domestic fowl, as grouse, pheasants, etc. 

 do not find food or water before them in such way. 

 Their food is distributed, however, much more like the 

 particles we scatter before the chick than does their 

 water supply resemble that of our methods. 



A young grouse would naturally get its water from 

 the dew on herbage, possibly from rain-water that had 

 gathered in little hollows of the ground, surface, etc. 

 And when the birds approach a stream, the surface near 

 is moist or wet, the particles it would naturally peck at 

 would be found up to and beyond the very margin of 

 the water, so that the contact of .the beak with water in 

 all these cases would be inevitable, and drinking would 

 come about as naturally as eating. 



When "The Writer of the Note" says: "A chick 

 swallows water instinctively, but must be taught to drink 

 by example or accident," the latter term evidently having 



