176 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



very much in the same position. The reason why fish 

 swim round and round in tanks, and do not beat them- 

 selves against the glass walls, is evidently because 

 they can see where the water ends. A distinction is 

 apparent between it and the air outside ; but when the 

 plate of glass was put inside the tank the jack saw 

 water beyond it, or through it. I never see a fish in a 

 tank without remembering this experiment and the 

 long train of reflections it gives rise to. To take a fish 

 from his native brook, and to place him suddenly in 

 the midst of such, to him, inconceivable conditions, is 

 almost like watching the actual creation of mind. His 

 mind has to be created anew to meet it, and that it did 

 ultimately meet the conditions shows that even the 

 fish — the cold-blooded, the narrow-brained — is not 

 confined to the grooves of hereditary knowledge alone, 

 but is capable of wider and novel efibrts. I thought 

 the jack came out very well indeed from the trial, and 

 I have mentioned the matter lest some should think I 

 have attributed too much intelligence to fish. 



Other creatures besides fish are puzzled by glass. 

 One day I observed a robin trying to get in at the 

 fanlight of a hall door. Repeatedly he struck himself 

 against it, beat it with his wings, and struggled to get 

 through the pane. Possibly there was a spider inside 

 which tempted him ; but allowing that temptation, it 

 was remarkable that the robin should so strive in vain. 

 Always about houses, he must have had experience of 

 the properties of glass, and yet forgot it so soon. His 

 ancestors for many generations must have had expe- 

 rience of glass, still it did not prevent him making 

 many ti'ials. The slowness of the jack to learn the 



