Habit and Instinct. 423 



in common with all the members of the same more or less 

 restricted group, in adaptation to certain circumstances, 

 oft-recurring or essential to the continuance of the species. 



These instinctive activities may, as I have said, be per- 

 formed at once and without practice (perfect instincts) or 

 by self -suggested trial and practice (incomplete instincts). 

 Most young mammals require some little practice in the 

 use of their limbs before they are able to walk or run. 

 But young pigs run about instinctively so soon as they are 

 born. Thunberg, the South African traveller, relates, on 

 the testimony of an experienced hunter, the case of a 

 female hippopotamus which was shot the moment she had 

 given birth to a calf. " The Hottentots," he said, " who 

 imagined that after this they could catch the calf alive, 

 immediately rushed out of their hiding-place to lay hold of 

 it ; but, though there were several of them, the new-born 

 calf got away from them, and at once made the best of its 

 way to the river." 



Even in cases where some practice is apparently neces- 

 sary, the activities may be, and often are, perfectly in- 

 stinctive. They cannot, however, be performed immediately 

 on birth, because the nervous and muscular mechanism 

 is not at that time sufficiently developed. They might, 

 perhaps, with advantage be termed "deferred instincts." 

 If time be given for this development, the activities are 

 carried out at once and without practice. Throw a new- 

 born puppy into the river, and, after some helpless 

 floundering, he will be drowned. Throw his brother when 

 fully grown into the river, and, though he may never have 

 been in the water in his life, he will swim to shore. He 

 has not to learn to swim ; this is with him an instinctive 

 activity. The dog inherits the power which the boy must 

 with some little difficulty acquire. He probably has to 

 pay no special attention to the muscular adjustments 

 involved. The act is accompanied by consciousness, but 

 not that directed consciousness we call " attention." When 

 the boy has acquired the habit, he is scarcely conscious of 

 the special muscular co-ordinations as he swims across the 



