Further Observations on Young Birds. 81 



that there may be, in some birds, instinctive avoidance of 

 certain objects when they are first presented to sight. 



We have now to consider the evidence for instinctive 

 fear of particular animals or objects. For the present, 

 however, the matter must be regarded from the purely 

 observational point of view. We will not now attempt to 

 determine what is the nature, or what the manner of 

 origin, of the emotional state as such. That must be 

 deferred to a future chapter. What we have to seek is 

 evidence of instinctive response, such as shrinking from 

 an object in such a way as to show an inherited dread of it. 



The reader will remember that there is no instinctive 

 fear of bees or wasps as such, but that there is a 

 shrinking response, probably instinctive, from any largish 

 strange object, especially if it moves vigorously or makes 

 some such noise as buzzing. This leads one to suspect 

 that the instinctive dread is not of any particular object 

 of sight, but rather of certain modes of activity. I have 

 trained my fox-terrier to remain passive and undemon- 

 strative in presence of the birds, though his trembling 

 muscles as he stands over them shows that he is exercising 

 no little control. None of the birds have shown the slightest 

 fear of him under these conditions. Pheasants, partridges, 

 and plovers would peck at his nose as he smelt at them, 

 and run in between his legs. A wild duck, three days old, 

 nearly broke down his self-control as it mumbled at his 

 lips. A chick, two and a half days old, when introduced to 

 the dog, who sat up with his head held down, sniffing at 

 the little fellow, ran in and out round his forepaws, and 

 then crept daintily in under the dog's body and cuddled 

 down in the warmth. Opening the door softly to call one 

 of my servants, who was in the next room, and whose 

 feelings would, I knew, be touched at the sight, I saw that 

 Tony, so soon as my back was partly turned, had seized the 



