CHAP. XV.] IMAGINATION AND VOLITION. 



It will not, we think, be difficult to find evidence of the 

 existence among Birds of an altogether richer and more 

 varied series of life phenomena. Some few illustrations 

 will now be cited. 



An interesting story from the pen of the Scottish natu- 

 ralist, Thomas Edwards, so much of whose life has been 

 devoted to the study of the habits of the lower animals, 

 may first be quoted. It refers to a little bird called the 

 ' Turnstone,' which feeds on the small Sandhoppers of 

 the sea- shore. The acts cited seem to testify to the exist- 

 ence of a distinct imagination of an end desired, and also 



tion of these mental states is not met with till we come to animals 

 of this degree of organization. The signs of Emotion, for instance, 

 are most typical in certain Eeptiles. B,. M. Middleton says ("Na- 

 ture," October 31st, 1878, p. 696) : " During the past summer I 

 have kept five Chameleons in captivity, and have repeatedly observed 

 their terror and rage when confronted with snakes. When a large 

 Algerian chameleon, now in my possession, perceives a common 

 snake wriggling in its vicinity, he at once inflates his body and 

 pouch, sways himself backwards and forwards with considerable 

 energy, or walks rapidly away with his body leaning over in the 

 direction farthest from the snake, opening his huge cavernous 

 mouth, and hissing, and even snapping at what he evidently 

 regards as his natural enemy. At the same time his body assumes 

 an almost instantaneous change of colour, and is quickly covered 

 with a large number of small brown spots. It is curious that even 

 similar symptoms of fear and anger are displayed when a lizard 

 or even a tree-frog is exhibited to him. The climax of grotesque 

 nervousness was, however, reached one day when the sight of a 

 child's doll produced the like effect; in this case it is probable that 

 the glass eyes of the doll, giving to it the appearance of life, were 

 what caused this terror in the reptile." The writer has also lately 

 noticed these signs of anger or terror in the chameleon. The 

 swaying of the body backwards and forwards, together with the 

 wide opening of its enormous mouth, were constant features, and 

 when the animal was taken up at this time, a peculiar thrill-like 

 vibration of the body could be distinctly felt. 



