198 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



unexpected places from which they emerged, baffled all our 

 efforts for a considerable time. At last one of the brood 

 made for the shore, with the object of hiding among the 

 grass and heather which fringed the lake. We pursued it 

 as closely as we could ; but when the little bird gained the 

 shore our boat was still about twenty yards off. Long 

 drought had left a broad margin of small flat stones and 

 mud between the water and the usual bank. I saw the little 

 bird run up a couple of yards from the water and then sud 

 denly disappear. Knowing what was likely to be enacted, 

 I kept my eye fixed on the spot, and when the boat was run 

 upon the beach I proceeded to find and pick up the chick. 

 But on reaching the place of disappearance no sign of the 

 young merganser was to be seen. The closest scrutiny, with 

 the certain knowledge that it was there, failed to enable me 

 to detect it. Proceeding cautiously forward, I soon became 

 convinced that I had already overshot the mark, and on 

 turning round it was only to see the bird rise like an appa 

 rition from the stones, and, dashing past the stranded boat, 

 regain the lake, where, having now recovered its wind, it 

 instantly dived and disappeared. The tactical skill of the 

 whole of this manoeuvre and the success with which it was 

 executed were greeted with loud cheers from the party ; and 

 our admiration was not diminished when we remembered 

 that some two weeks before that time the little performer 

 had been coiled up inside the shell of an egg, and that 

 about a month before it was apparently nothing but a mass 

 of albumen and of fatty oils. 



On this the Duke very properly remarks that all 

 idea of training and experience is absolutely ex 

 cluded, because it * assumes the pre-existence of the 

 very powers for which it professes to account ! He 

 then turns to the idea that animals are automata, or 

 4 machines. Here it is to be observed that the essen- 



