INSTINCTIVE, EMOTIONAL AND REFLEX ACTION 317 



bird has never been taught nor has it had any experience 

 of nest building, yet the first nest is constructed on the 

 same plan and fashioned as well as any of its successors, 

 all the actions, gathering of straw, grass and twigs, are 

 a series of complex movements blindly directed toward 

 an intelligent end. 



"Instinctive compared with reflex actions Instinct has 

 much in common with reflex actions. Whenever certain 

 stimuli are present, definite, unvarying actions tend to 

 result in both cases. We saw that a sensory stimulus on 

 the side of a decapitated frog was followed by a definite 

 action suited to remove the cause. When the caterpillar 

 feels certain stimuli, it mechanically begins to weave a 

 shroud in a blind reflex way and the action is automatic 

 as long as the stimulus is operative. 



"A reflex movement is simpler and does not involve the 

 whole body in action. A limb may be moved ; an eye 

 winked ; one muscle contracted. When a bird builds a 

 nest, the instinctive tendency results in movement of 

 wings spread in flight, ocular search for materials, alight- 

 ing and seizing them with either bill or claw, carrying 

 them to proper place and fixing them in position. Here 

 the instinctive movements constantly change and the one 

 is not a mere repetition of the other. 



"An ant will hoard grain for the winter and the cater- 

 pillar provide for a butterfly existence. 



"Bees construct larger cells for young Queen bees and 

 feed the Royal Larvae with more and richer food, al- 

 though there is originally no difference between them 

 and the Larvae of Workers. Similar reflex tendencies 

 would result in making all cells the same to start with 

 and feeding all the young the same way. Hence, some 

 call all instincts examples of 'lapsed intelligence,' that is 

 the actions were at first the result of a highly voluntary 



