Life and Instinct 203 



its eye on the victim and, like a flash, strike it with its mailed 

 foot; then squealing all the while, spread wings and tail to the 

 ground, thus making a complete enclosure about the quarry, 

 with only one way of possible escape, that beneath its bill and 

 watchful eye? 



Again, how is it possible for hive-bees, working in the dark 

 and all crowded together, to produce the exquisite comb, com- 

 posed of a double layer of regular hexagonal prisms, which will 

 contain the greatest amount of honey with the least expenditure 

 of wax, for the making of which precious honey must be sacri- 

 ficed? Or, again, what prompts certain ants to capture and 

 bring into their nests ants of other species which are held as 

 slaves, and in this capacity not only procure food for their 

 masters, but even feed and clean them? The worker bee and 

 the worker ant are sterile, and therefore unable to transmit 

 anything which they either inherit or acquire. 



How is the larva of the butterfly or moth able to spin its 

 cocoon? It does it alone, but once in its life, and does it 

 perfectly. 



No learning of such initial actions is required or possible 

 since all this has been attended to, as one might say, centuries 

 before the animal was born. All such instinctive activities are 

 spontaneous, and when the right button is pressed, or the right 

 stimulus applied from within or without, the reaction follows as 

 a matter of course. Of course the Robin must knead and mold 

 its rude nest-materials of mud and straw; of course it must lay 

 blue eggs, and after incubating them, feed and rear its young. 

 To be denied the privilege would cause sore distress. Had its 

 ancestors been Cowbirds, it would have made no nest at all, but 

 filched another's, and foisting its eggs upon some simple-minded 

 nurse, shirked the duties of parents to their offspring. The 

 Cowbird was thus very early to enter the field of experimental 

 psychology. 



Every bird must follow the laws of its nature, and its 

 inherited instincts are no more wonderful than its inher- 

 ited organs, its vocal cords, its keen eyes, and its wonderful 

 feathers. 



