ADAPTATION OF ORGANISMS 343 



to grasp its prey with its large claws, tear it into pieces by 

 means of certain appendages about the mouth which are 

 adapted just for the purpose and so on to the higher Verte- 

 brates where the feeding instincts reach their maximum of 

 complexity. The marvelous behavior of Ants and Bees is 

 essentially a complex of instincts. Turn the hive around and 

 the homing instinct of the Bees proves abortive they can- 

 not find the entrance. Moreover, instincts of fear, self- 

 defense, play, care of the young, etc., render a considerable 

 part of the behavior of even the higher organisms more 

 'automatic' than is perhaps, at first thought, apparent. (Fig. 

 101.) 



But just as the behavior of Paramecium and its allies is 

 modifiable, so instincts which seem the most stereotyped 

 show at least a slight degree of adaptability to unusual condi- 

 tions. And it is this ever-present modicum of modifiability, 

 which is in Man called 'choice,' that leavens the whole and 

 becomes the dominant factor in the behavior of the highest 

 animals; while reflex action and instinct are relegated to a 

 subsidiary though by no means unimportant role. 



The power of such more or less conscious 'choice' of re- 

 sponses to external conditions affords a gradual and ill- 

 defined transition from instincts to intellectual processes, or 

 reason. The foundations of both are to be sought in simple 

 reflex actions and oft-repeated voluntary actions which 

 gradually become habits relegated to the level of reflex 

 actions. Indeed a large part of the education of Man con- 

 sists in establishing adaptive reflexes which relieve the 

 conscious life of innumerable simple factors of behavior, and 

 leave it more or less free for the higher intellectual processes. 

 Although it is necessary to emphasize that mind and intelli- 

 gence, in the biological sense, are expressions for that inte- 

 gration of nervous states and actions which makes possible 



