SOME POPULAR ERRORS 



of great scientific repute, who, being engrossed 

 in the work of discovering proofs of human in- 

 telligence in insects, do not pause to discover that 

 the facts upon which these proofs are based do 

 not exist. In the schools where " nature-study " 

 is made a speciality, he who would dispute certain 

 authoritative dogmas about the reasoning powers 

 of ants and so on would be only a futile voice cry- 

 ing in the wilderness. Yet in these schools are 

 being educated the men and women of the next 

 generation. 



Another very fruitful source of popular error 

 is the newspaper paragraph, cleverly written from 

 facts by a journalist who knows little or nothing 

 of natural science, and consequently jumps to 

 absurd conclusions. 



A paragraph of this kind lately went round the 

 press, describing how a wounded partridge had 

 sagaciously plucked feathers from its own breast 

 and had carefully laid them upon its injured leg 

 in such a way that the soft ends alone covered the 

 injured part. 



I obtained, however, a photograph of the 

 " bandaged " leg, showing that what had mani- 

 festly happened in the case was merely that the 

 ends of some of the body feathers stuck to the 

 bleeding wound every time the bird squatted to 

 rest. 



[89] 



