BLENDED ORIGIN, OR PLASTICITY OF INSTINCT. 217 



feathers of their chickens. While engaged in tliis process, 

 however, she used frequently to stop and look witli one eye 

 at the wriggling nest-full with an enquiring gaze expressive of 

 astonishment. At other times, also, her family gave her good 

 reason to be surprised ; for she used often to tly off the nest 

 suddenly with a loud scream, an action which Avas doubtless 

 due to the unaccustomed sensation of being nipped by the 

 young ferrets in their search for the teats. It is further 

 worth while to remark that the hen showed so much uneasi- 

 ness of mind when the ferrets were taken from her to be fed, 

 that at one time I thought she was going to desert them 

 altogether. After this, therefore, the ferrets were always fed 

 in the nest, and with this arrangement the hen was perfectly 

 satisfied — apparently because she thought that she had some 

 share in the feeding process. At any rate she used to cluck 

 when she saw the milk coming, and surveyed the feeding 

 with evident satisfaction. 



" Altogether I consider this a very remarkable case of the 

 plasticity of instinct. The hen, it should be said, was a 

 young one, and had never reared a brood of chickens. A 

 few months before she reared the young ferrets, she had been 

 attacked and nearly killed by an old ferret which had escaped 

 from its hutch. The young ferrets were taken from her 

 several days before their eyes were open. 



" In conclusion, I may add that a few weeks before trying 

 this experiment with the hen, I tried a similar one with a 

 rabbit which had littered six days before .... Unlike 

 the hen, however, the doe perceived the imposture at once, 

 and attacked the young ferret so savagely that she broke two 

 of its legs before I could remove it. To have made the ex- 

 periment parallel wdth the other, however, the two mammalian 

 mothers should have littered on the same day." 



Lastly, turning to the Mammalia, a friend of the Kev. 

 Mr. White, of Selborne, gave him an account of a leveret 

 which he saw reared by a cat.* Prichard gives an account 

 of a cat that reared a puppy,t and from among many analogous 

 instances that might be rendered, I shall only quote the 

 following, as it is remarkable on account of displayhig 

 voluntary adoption by a cat of the young of animals which 

 her other instincts and constant practice had taught her to 

 regard as prey. 



* Bingley, Animal Biography, i, 269. f Nat. Hist, of Mankind, i, 102. 



