298 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



The process in the kingbird, as above detailed, gives 

 at least an opportunity for the more definite limitations 

 of those actions which Prof. Baldwin has, perhaps 

 unfortunately, called half-congenital. 



The action of the callow bird in deglutition is prob- 

 ably performed as a reflex on the stimulation of the 

 presence of food in the pharynx. Small fragments upon 

 the beak, and in the anterior portion of the mouth, are 

 not perceived, and do not quiet the almost irritating 

 clamour of the gaping young. The enormous size of 

 the mouth, the thickened " lips," and the bright-coloured 

 concentric markings of the oral walls, make a target, 

 the sensitive centre of which (the opening of the 

 cesophagus) only a most awkward parent could fail 

 to hit. We might argue that the young nestling has 

 not, at first, a definite sense of taste ; and actual 

 experiment on the kingbird shows that most unsavoury 

 morsels, when placed in the mouth, are swallowed, 

 though not without subsequent signs of surprise, if 

 not of disgust. It is not, then, difficult to perceive 

 that the young bird, while still within the nest, 

 acquires, as a result of the selective activity of the 

 parent, a taste for certain food. The discriminative 

 exercise of the sense of taste is thus a result of direct 

 tuition. The young cow-bird, whose foster-parent has 

 been a vireo, will doubtless acquire a relish for food 

 very different from that enjoyed by, perchance, its own 

 brother, but the ward of a graminivorous finch. 



It may be objected that the orphan chick, selecting 

 food without the discriminative direction of a parent, 

 is not a parallel case with the young kingbird. The 

 bird in my possession was so tame, that when it reached 

 an age comparable with the newly-hatched chick, I 

 could take it into the fields and observe it as it foraged, 

 chick-fashion, for itself. I think that I saw it capture 



