WAYS OF NATURE 



In interpreting the action of the animals, we so 

 often do the thinking and reasoning ourselves 

 which we attribute to them. Thus Mr. Beebe in the 

 paper referred to says : &quot; Birds have early learned to 

 take clams or mussels in their beaks or claws at low 

 tide and carry them out of the reach of the water, 

 so that at the death of the mollusk, the relaxation 

 of the adductor muscle would permit the shell to 

 spring open and afford easy access to the inmate.&quot; 

 No doubt the advancing tide would cause the bird 

 to carry the shell-fish back out of the reach of the 

 waves, where it might hope to get at its meat, but 

 where it would be compelled to leave the shell un 

 opened. But that the bird knew the fish would 

 die there and that its shell would then open it 

 is in such particulars that the observer does the 

 thinking. 



Two other writers upon our birds have stated 

 that pelicans will gather in flocks along the shore, 

 and by manoeuvring and beating the water with 

 their wings, will drive the fish into the shallows, 

 where they easily capture them. Here again the 

 observer thinks for the observed. The pelicans see 

 the fish and pursue them, without any plan to cor 

 ner them in shoal water, but the inevitable result 

 is that they are so cornered and captured. The 

 fish are foolish, but the pelicans are not wise. The 

 wisdom here attributed to them is human wisdom 

 and not animal wisdom. 



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