iv ON INSTINCT IN MAN AND ANIMALS 97 



fearlessness of being lost, his accurate perception of direction 

 and of distance, and he is thus able very soon to acquire a 

 knowledge of the district that seems marvellous to a civilised 

 man ; but my own observation of savages in forest countries 

 has convinced me that they find their way by the use of no 

 other faculties than those which we ourselves possess. It 

 appears to me, therefore, that to call in the aid of a new and 

 mysterious power to account for savages being able to do that 

 which, under similar conditions, we could almost all of us 

 perform, although perhaps less perfectly, is almost ludicrously 

 unnecessary. 



In the next essay I shall attempt to show that much of 

 what has been attributed to instinct in birds can be also 

 very well explained by crediting them with those faculties of 

 observation, memory, and imitation, and with that limited 

 amount of reason, which they undoubtedly exhibit. 



