262 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ZOOLOGY 



poseless and uncoordinated movements in all parts of the body ; 

 but it would be difficult to show that the vision of a dog, which 

 is slowly "acquired" during early puppyhood, or the coordina- 

 tions between it and the movements of the body, is any more 

 perfect, or any more useful as a means for adjusting action to 

 the external world, than that of the wild lamb which, in less 

 than five seconds after its birth, was seen by Hudson to run 

 freely at its mother's side, as she started off at a brisk trot after 

 the flock ; or the jacana which, as the egg which he held in his 

 hand parted, leaped from the cracked shell, and from his hand, 

 into the water, and " swimming rapidly to a small mound, and 

 escaping from the water, concealed itself in the grass, lying down 

 and perfectly motionless like a young plover." 



Spalding tells us that when he placed a chick which had been 

 blindfolded at birth, on rough ground, in sight of a hen, " it started 

 off towards the hen, displaying as keen a perception of the qual- 

 ities of the outer world as it was ever likely to possess in after 

 life. It never required to knock its head against a stone to dis- 

 cover that there was no road that way. It leaped over the smaller 

 obstacles that lay in its path, and ran round the larger, reaching 

 the mother in as nearly a straight line as the nature of the ground 

 would permit. This, let it be remembered, was the first time it 

 had ever walked by sight." 



The coordination between tactile and muscular impressions, 

 and those we get through the eyes, which enables us to walk with 

 sure feet, by sight, among the obstacles which beset our path 

 through the world, comes with training which is accompanied by 

 conscious judgment, but it would be difficult to show that human 

 sight is superior in any way to that of birds ; although the newly 

 hatched bird may coordinate its visual and tactile and muscular 

 impressions as it runs, and may be able, before its first sally into 

 the world is fairly begun, to maintain its balance on rough ground, 

 to leap over small obstacles, to go around larger ones, and to fitly 

 adjust its actions to the invisible properties which are associated, 

 in course of nature, with visible ones. 



" A chick two days old," says Morgan, " had learned to pick 

 out pieces of yolk from others of white of Q.gg. I cut little bits 

 of orange peel of about the same size as the pieces of yolk, and 



