Habit and Instinct. 



infer to be present is commonly ascribed to the sphere of 

 mental phenomena, and regarded as a special mode of 

 the workings of consciousness. If, then, we are putting 

 the matter fairly and correctly ; if observation of the 

 activities provides us with the facts from which to infer 

 the existence of a special mode of the workings of con- 

 sciousness, termed " instinct ; " it is clearly our duty, 

 as scientific inquirers, to deal first with the observable 

 facts, and then with the psychological inferences which 

 may be drawn from them. Thus only can we hope to 

 overcome the difficulties which arise from the circum- 

 stance that the term "instinctive" is applied on the one 

 hand to certain observable activities, and on the other 

 hand to certain inferred mental faculties. 



Let us, then, proceed to consider some of the leading 

 characteristics of instinctive activities as they present 

 themselves to our observation and study in the animal 

 world. In popular speech, as was noted at the outset, 

 all the activities of animals are comprehensively instinc- 

 tive. What we have to do, therefore, is to show in what 

 respects the use of the word as a technical term has 

 undergone limitation ; and to indicate the more restricted 

 group of activities to which it is specifically applicable. 



In the first place, instinctive activities are severally 

 common to, and similarly performed by, all the like 

 members of the same more or less restricted group of 

 animals. They are essentially lacking in individuality. 

 The spinning of a cocoon by the silkworm, the migration 

 of the swallow, the fieldfare, or the golden plover, the 

 hibernation of the frog or the bear, the behaviour of an 

 irritated bee, an irritated skunk, an irritated cuttle-fish, 

 these and a thousand other peculiar activities are charac- 

 teristic of particular individuals, not in virtue of their 

 individuality, but as representatives of their kind. I once 



