136 Habit and Instinct. 



The net result of our discussion of the matter is there- 

 fore this, that on the occasion of the first performance 

 of an instinctive activity the co-ordination involved (and 

 it is sometimes quite elaborate) is automatic, and cannot 

 be regarded as under the guidance of consciousness ; but 

 that the carrying out of the activity furnishes data to 

 consciousness in the light of which the subsequent per- 

 formance of a like activity may be perfected, or modified, 

 or checked. From this it follows that only on the 

 occasion of its first performance does such a congenital 

 activity present itself for our study in its instinctive 

 purity. For on subsequent occasions it is more or less 

 modified by the results of the experience acquired by the 

 individual. It then possesses acquired elements in 

 addition to those which are congenital and instinctive; 

 and when such acquired modification is rendered stereo- 

 typed and uniform by repetition, it is, so far as thus 

 modified, a habit. In such organisms as birds and young 

 mammals, therefore, instincts are to be regarded as the 

 automatic raw material which will be shaped and moulded 

 under the guidance of consciousness into what may be 

 called instinct-habits t if by this compound term we may 

 understand activities founded on a congenital instinctive 

 basis, but modified by acquired experience. 



In the case, too, of such an instinctive procedure of th 

 deferred type as that presented by the diving of a young 

 moorhen, though, on the first occasion of its performance 

 the congenital automatism predominates, yet it is difficult 

 to believe, and is in itself improbable, that the individual 

 experience of the young bird does not, even on the first 

 occasion, exercise some influence on the way in which the 

 dive is performed. If we desire to reach a true interpre- 

 tation of the facts, we must realize the fact that an 

 activity may be of mixed origin. And if we distinguish 



o 



. 



or 



