54 



Habit and Instinct. 



the experiment. But several young wasps having crawled 

 out of a nest containing larvae and pupae, and having 

 fallen on to the floor, where a wild duck, a tame duck, 

 a chick, a guinea-fowl, and a pheasant were roaming in 

 search of food, the ducks at once snapped them up 

 and ate them. All except the pheasant (which would 

 not touch even largish flies) subsequently ate a large 

 number of the sleepy wasps, and seemed to enjoy them. 

 The jays also ate several, crushing them to a pulp in the 

 extreme point of the bill before swallowing them. 



It would be wearisome to recount at length further 

 observations, all pointing with sufficient definiteness to 

 one conclusion: namely, that, though there is at first 

 some congenital shyness of largish active, and especially 

 buzzing, insects, this shyness is not congenitally par- 

 ticularized, and, in the long run, acceptance or avoidance 

 is almost entirely due to the acquired results of indi- 

 vidual experience. It is therefore clear, if this conclusion 

 holds, that in experiments on the relative palatability 

 of insects or larvae with either warning or protective 

 coloration, we must not look for instinctive avoidance, 

 and that the results will largely depend on the nature of 

 the previous experience of the bird (and the same is 

 probably true of other animals) to which they are offered. 

 There are, of course, individual differences of apparently 

 a congenital kind. Some birds are constitutionally shyer 

 than others. Much also depends on the nature of initial 

 experience. A bird that has in early days seized a bee 

 with ill effects is shy for a long time, not only of bees, but 

 of moths, large flies, and beetles, while one which is so 

 stung at a later stage, is made, perhaps, a little more 

 cautious generally ; but the main effect is a particularized 

 one concerning bees or the bee-like drone fly. In several 

 cases I have noticed that the sting, or possibly a taste 





