FACTORS IN ANIMAL LIFE 



seem to show at times a kind of altruistic feeling. A 

 correspondent writes me that she possessed a canary 

 which lived to so great an age that it finally became 

 so feeble it could not crack the seeds she gave it, 

 when the other birds, its own progeny, it is true, fed 

 it ; and Darwin cites cases of blind birds, in a state of 

 nature, being fed by their fellows. Probably it would 

 be hasty to conclude that such acts show anything 

 more than instinct. I should be slow to ascribe to the 

 animals any notion of the uses of punishment as we 

 practice it, though the cat will box her kittens when 

 they play too long with her tail, and the mother hen 

 will separate her chickens when they get into a fight, 

 and sometimes peck one or both of them on the head, 

 as much as to say, &quot; There, don t you do that again.&quot; 

 The rooster will in the same way separate two hens 

 when they are fighting. On the surface this seems 

 like a very human act, but can we say that it is pun 

 ishment or discipline in the human sense, as having 

 for its aim a betterment of the manners of the kit 

 tens or of the chickens ? The cat aims to get rid of 

 an annoyance, and the rooster and the mother hen 

 interfere to prevent an injury to members of their 

 family; they exhibit the paternal and maternal in 

 stinct of protection. More than that would imply 

 ethical considerations, of which the lower animals are 

 not capable. The act of the baboon, mentioned by 

 Darwin, I believe, that examined the paws of the cat 

 that had scratched it, and then deliberately bit off 

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