36 Habit and Instinct. 



took no notice whatever of the clucking of its, till then 

 unknown, mother, and did not show any tendency either 

 to go to the hen or to follow the three chicks. He pecked 

 about independently and unconcernedly, eating grain, 

 and seizing small stones, but came to my hand when I 

 held it out towards him, and cuddled down in it. When 

 the hen took her three chicks under her wing, the stranger 

 was placed close to her. She clucked and seemed anxious 

 to entice and welcome the little fellow, seizing an oat- 

 husk and dropping it before the chick, which, however, 

 took no notice whatever, but walked away and stood in 

 the sun. After about forty minutes he seemed more 

 inclined to go with the other chicks, but still ignored the 

 existence of the hen. Thus I have not found any truly 

 instinctive response to the clucking of a hen ; but, as 

 before noticed, Spalding recorded a different result. And 

 Mr. Hudson's observations on the effects of warning notes 

 on unhatched birds indicate a truly congenital response in 

 their case. We need more evidence. 



We may now turn to the instinct of pecking, and the 

 congenital definiteness of orderly movements which it 

 involves. As the observations of Spalding, Eimer, Preyer, 

 and others have conclusively proved, the pecking at grain 

 and other small objects is a definitely congenital activity, 

 and one, be it noted, which involves remarkable nicety and 

 complexity of co-ordination. The aim is, however, seldom 

 quite correct at first, though very nearly so, the object, 

 if not struck, being only just missed, though the accuracy 

 was somewhat exaggerated by Spalding. In some cases 

 the tendency seems to strike a little short of the object. 

 Moving the grain or egg-fragments with a pin, or dropping 

 some before the chick, causes the edible material more 

 readily to catch the eye. Most noteworthy is the fact 

 that the young birds only strike at objects which are 



