Fear in Birds 227 



The preceding pages on this important and difficult subject 

 may be summarized as follows: The instinct of fear is inherited, 

 and often delayed, where it is a special adaptation, not only 

 leading the young, as Lloyd Morgan remarks, to accept a foster 

 parent and not to shrink from her, but what is more important, 

 keeping the young in the nest, barring accidents, until they 

 can in some degree help themselves. Fear of particular objects 

 is learned, or becomes grafted on to the original stock. The 

 instinct may gather force or disappear, at least in adult life, 

 according to the nature of the environment and the new habits 

 formed in consequence. The strongest sense of fear may be 

 partially or completely blocked by the brooding and other 

 parental instincts. The instinctive basis of fear is apparently 

 handed down from generation to generation, but in the life of 

 the full-grown bird it is probably largely replaced by habit or 

 the formation of associations. The innate or latent capacity 

 remains, but the definite association of certain actions with par- 

 ticular objects or experiences is probably handed down by 

 tradition rather than by heredity. 



