The Dawn of Mind 223 



Intelligence co-operating with Instinct 



Professor Lloyd Morgan was foster-parent to two moorhens 

 which grew 5 up in isolation from their kindred. They swam in- 

 stinctively, but they would not dive, neither in a large bath nor 

 in a current. But it happened one day when one of these moor- 

 hens was swimming in a pool on a Yorkshire stream, that a puppy 

 came barking down the bank and made an awkward feint towards 

 the young bird. In a moment the moorhen dived, disappeared 

 from view, and soon partially reappeared, his head just peeping 

 above the water beneath the overhanging bank. This was the first 

 time the bird had dived, and the performance was absolutely true 

 to type. 



There can be little doubt as to the meaning of this observa- 

 tion. The moorhen has an hereditary or instinctive capacity for 

 swimming and diving, but the latter is not so easily called into 

 activity as the former. The particular moorhen in question had 

 enjoyed about two months of swimming experience, wjiich prob- 

 ably counted for something, but in the course of that experience 

 nothing had pulled the trigger of the diving capacity. On an 

 eventful day the young moorhen saw and heard the dog; it was 

 emotionally excited; it probably did to some extent intelligently 

 appreciate a novel and meaningful situation. Intelligence co- 

 operated with instinct, and the bird dived appropriately. 



Birds have inborn predispositions to certain effective ways 

 of pecking, scratching, swimming, diving, flying, crouching, lying 

 low, nest-building, and so on; but they are marked off from the 

 much more purely instinctive ants and bees by the extent to 

 which individual "nurture" seems to mingle with the inherited 

 "nature." The two together result in the fine product which we 

 call the bird's behaviour. After Lloyd Morgan's chicks had 

 tried a few conspicuous and unpalatable caterpillars, they had no 

 use for any more. They learned in their early days with prodi- 

 gious rapidity, illustrating the deep difference between the "big- 

 brain" type, relatively poor in its endowment of instinctive 



