HABIT AND INSTINCT. 



CHAPTEK I. 



PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



THE naturalist commonly uses the word " habits " in 

 describing the activities and behaviour of animals, each 

 after his kind. Having given some account, for example, 

 of the external form and internal structure of beast or 

 bird or insect, he proceeds to deal with its habits, its 

 general mode of life how it seeks its food, how it rears or 

 makes provision for its young, and so forth. The habits of 

 animals thus constitute a wide and interesting field for 

 observation and study. The word is, however, often used 

 in a more restricted sense. In speaking of human beings, 

 we generally use the word " habit " to describe some action 

 or mode of behaviour which results from repetition in the 

 course of individual experience. We should not speak of 

 an act that is only occasionally performed under special 

 circumstances as a habit. In employing the word " habit " 

 as a technical term for purposes of scientific description, it 

 is expedient to adopt this restriction. In this sense a habit 

 is a more or less definite mode of procedure or kind of 

 behaviour which has been acquired by the individual, and 

 has become, so to speak, stereotyped through repetition. 

 There can be little objection, however, to the concurrent use 

 of the word in its broader and more general acceptation ; 



B 



