444 Eimer on Growth and Inhe^^itance 



careful observer of interesting natural facts. They only do 

 away with the value of his explanations of them. We should 

 be the last to deny to animals the keenest powers of percep- 

 tion, and so great a facility for associating past experiences, 

 feelings and emotions, as to make their powers of practical 

 inference obvious. What we deny to them is a power of 

 reflection, and the conscious possession of ideas as such. 

 We deny them the power of forming true abstract ideas, 

 and therefore of expressing such ideas in abstract language. 

 But no reasonable person would think of denying that many 

 of them possess a rich and copious language of feeling. As 

 to their sentiments of fear and confidence being modified by 

 circumstances, he tells us ^ the following anecdote : — 



' Some years ago a male chaffinch in my garden had become so 

 tame with me that he flew after me everywhere, in order to take the 

 hemp-seed and meal-worms which I offered him. Wherever I went 

 or stood in the garden the finch appeared from the bushes, perched 

 on the nearest branch or on the ground in front of me, and with his 

 2)owerful chirp — " pink, pink " — demanded his food. But if he had 

 not noticed me, I had only to whistle in imitation of his chirp and he 

 appeared. At last he used to come after me even into the house, 

 and follow me from room to room asking to be fed. Yet, in spite of 

 his trustfulness, I could not induce him to feed out of my hand. It 

 was evident that he constantly endeavoured to overcome the remnant 

 of timidity which stiU survived in him, but he could not yet succeed. 

 Still I strove to attain this end, and the visible progress made per- 

 mitted the hope that I should shortly succeed ; then an unfortunate 

 accident suddenly altered the condition of affairs, and put an abrupt 

 end to his confidence. One day a sparrow on a tree in front of my 

 window was piping indefatigably his monotonous shrill chirp, which 

 pierces the ear the more irritatingly the more energetically it is 

 uttered, and the greater its well-known deficiency of cadence. As 

 the fellow had repeatedly disturbed me at my work in this way, I 

 resolved on his destruction, and, creeping within range, I fired at him 

 with a small chamber gun loaded with small shot. At the shot my 

 beloved finch flew suddenly from the tree where he had been perched 



1 P. 232. 



