GATHERED BY THE WAY 



to be read as a development of reason in its place. 

 It is a modified instinct, the instinct for food seek 

 ing new sources of supply. Exactly how it came 

 about would be interesting to know. Our oriole 

 is an insectivorous bird, but in some localities it is 

 very destructive in the August vineyards. It does 

 not become a fruit-eater like the robin, but a juice- 

 sucker; it punctures the grapes for their unfermented 

 wine. Here, again, we have a case of modified and 

 adaptive instinct. All animals are more or less 

 adaptive, and avail themselves of new sources of 

 food supply. When the southern savannas were 

 planted with rice, the bobolinks soon found that this 

 food suited them. A few years ago we had a great 

 visitation in the Hudson River Valley of crossbills 

 from the north. They lingered till the fruit of the 

 peach orchards had set, when they discovered that 

 here was a new source of food supply, and they 

 became very destructive to the promised crop by 

 deftly cutting out the embryo peaches. All such 

 cases show how plastic and adaptive instinct is, at 

 least in relation to food supplies. Let me again say 

 that instinct is native, untaught intelligence, di 

 rected outward, but never inward as in man. 



VII. THE ROBIN 



Probably, with us, no other bird is so closely 

 associated with country life as the robin ; most of 

 the time pleasantly, but for a brief season, during 



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