WHAT DO ANIMALS KNOW? 



seem incredible. He might easily drop a clam by 

 accident, and then, finding the shell broken, repeat 

 the experiment. He is still only taking the first step 

 in the sequence of causations. 



A recent English nature-writer, on the whole, I 

 think, a good observer and truthful reporter, Mr. 

 Richard Kearton, tells of an osprey that did this 

 incredible thing: to prevent its eggs from being 

 harmed by an enforced exposure to the sun, the bird 

 plunged into the lake, then rose, and shook its drip 

 ping plumage over the nest. The writer apparently 

 reports this story at second-hand. It is incredible 

 to me, because it implies a knowledge that the hawk 

 could not possibly possess. 



Such an emergency could hardly arise once in a 

 lifetime to it or its forbears. Hence the act could not 

 have been the result of inherited habit, or instinct, 

 and as an original act on the part of the osprey it is 

 not credible. The bird probably plunged into the 

 lake for a fish, and then by accident shook itself 

 above the eggs. In any case, the amount of water 

 that would fall upon the eggs under such circum 

 stances would be too slight to temper appreciably 

 the heat. 



There is little doubt that among certain of our 

 common birds the male, during periods of excessive 

 heat, has been known to shade the female with his 

 outstretched wings, and the mother bird to shade 

 her young in the same way. But this is a different 

 137 



