162 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. 



which they struck — they never missed by more than a hair's 

 breadth, and that, too, when the specks at which they aimed 

 were no bigger, and less visible, than the smallest dot of an i. 

 To seize betw^een the points of the mandibles at the very 

 instant of striking seemed a more difficult operation. I have 

 seen a chicken seize and swallow an insect at the first 

 attempt ; most frequently, however, they struck five or six 

 times, lifting once or twice before they succeeded in swallow- 

 ing their first food. The unacquired power of following by 

 sight was very plainly exemplified in the case of a chicken 

 that, after being unhooded, sat complaining and motionless 

 for six minutes, when I placed my hand on it for a few 

 seconds. On removing my hand the chicken immediately 

 followed it by sight backward and forward, and all round the 

 table. To take, by way of example, the observations in a 

 sinsjle case a little in detail : — A chicken that had been made 

 the subject of experiments on hearing, was unhooded when 

 nearly three days old. For six minutes it sat chirping and 

 looking about it ; at the end of that time it followed with its 

 head and eyes the movements of a fly twelve inches distant ; 

 at ten minutes it made a peck at its own toes, and the next 

 instant it made a vigorous dart at the fly, which had come 

 wdthin reach of its neck, and seized and swallowed it at the 

 first stroke ; for seven minutes more it sat calling and looking 

 about it, when a hive-bee coming sufficiently near was seized 

 at a dart and thrown some distance, much disabled. For 

 twenty minutes it sat on the spot where its eyes had been 

 unveiled without attempting to walk a step. It was then 

 placed on rough ground within sight and call of a hen with a 

 brood of its own age. After standing chirping for about a 

 minute, it started off towards the hen, displaying as keen a 

 perception of the qualities of the outer world as it was ever 

 likely to possess in after life. It never required to knock its 

 head against a stone to discover that there was ' no road that 

 way.' It leaped over the smaller obstacles that lay in its 

 path and ran round the larger, reaching the mother in as 

 nearly a straight line as the nature of the ground would per- 

 mit. This, let it be remembered, was the first time it had 

 ever walked by sight." 



Further, " When tw^elve days old one of my little proteges, 

 while running about beside me, gave the peculiar chirr 

 wheieby they announce tlie approach of danger. I looked 



