CHAP. XII. ] AND PERCEPTION. 189 



as it was ever likely to possess in afterlife. ... 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." 



Experiments were also made with regard to the sense of 

 Hearing. Chicks before they had fully escaped from the 

 shell were rendered more or less deaf by sealing their ears 

 with several folds of gummed paper. Three of them were 

 found, when thus treated, to be so deaf, that they remained 

 perfectly indifferent to the voice of the mother, separated 

 from them by only an inch board. After having been kept 

 in a bag in a dark room till they were between two and 

 three days old, the ears of these three chicks were uncovered, 

 and, Spalding says, " on being placed within call of the 

 mother, hidden in a box, they, after turning round a few 

 times, ran straight to the spot whence came what must have 

 been very nearly, if not actually, the first sound they had 

 ever heard." These facts are, as he adds, " conclusive 

 against the theory that, in the history of each life, sounds 

 are at first but meaningless sensations ; that the direction 

 of the sounding object, together with all other facts con- 

 cerning it, must be learned entirely from experience." 



But just as young Chicks follow the call of their mother 

 before they have had any opportunity of associating that 

 sound with pleasurable feelings, so do they, and other 

 young birds, appear to be inspired, independently of all 

 education on their part, with an immediate Emotion of 

 dread, or sense of danger, at the sight, or on first hearing 

 the cry, of birds of prey, whose predecessors have been 

 the natural enemies of their predecessors. Thus, a young 

 Hawk, able to take only short flights, was made to hover 

 over a hen with her first brood, then about a week old. 



" In the twinkling of an eye," says Spalding, " most of the 

 chickens were hid among grass and bushes. The hen pursued 



