Further Observations on Young Birds. 93 



the young cow-bird (Moluthrus) at any time. On the 

 whole I am disposed to believe that the warning cry 

 evokes a truly instinctive response. 



Let us now turn to some apparently insignificant but 

 not uninteresting activities, some of which constitute 

 distinctive traits in the several kinds of young birds, and 

 all of which, though they may be perfected in definiteness 

 through individual practice and guidance, have a sufficiently 

 definite congenital basis to be regarded as fundamentally 

 instinctive. 



A duckling a few hours old will scratch the side of his 

 head. It is true, he may topple over in the process 

 through insufficient co-ordination; for the simultaneous 

 performance of poising on one leg and having a good 

 scratch is no easy matter. But let not either the familiar 

 simplicity of the act of scratching, nor some observed 

 difficulty in carrying it out, blind us to the fact that 

 this is a congenital activity, and that of no little com- 

 plexity, indicating a quite definite inherited organic nexus. 

 A local irritation (I have produced this artificially with 

 young birds, and found the response quite definite) sets 

 agoing a most complete set of movements in the hind limb 

 of that side, the result of which is that just that particular 

 spot is scratched ; or sometimes the bill is applied to the 

 point of irritation in the body, which is definitely localized 

 in the absence of previous practice or the establishment 

 of "local signs." Similarly, a young moorhen chick that 

 had seized a piece of lettuce, which stuck in its mouth and 

 projected at the hinder end of the gape, scratched at it 

 rapidly and vigorously and with perfect definiteness. And 

 a recently hatched pheasant, fed by hand, whose bill had 

 got clogged with food, wiped it on the ground with ex- 

 ceeding precision and neatness. These may perhaps be 

 regarded rather as reflex actions than as instinctive 



