30 Habit and Instinct. 



Nor need we trouble ourselves much at present — not 

 otherwise, that is to say, than incidentally — with the 

 subjective interpretation of the facts. We need not now 

 stay to inquire whether, on the one hand, the performance 

 of a truly instinctive activity — one the definiteness of 

 which is congenital — is a merely organic response (be it 

 accompanied by consciousness or not) ; or whether, on 

 the other hand, there are innate ideas or inherited 

 memories by virtue of which consciousness guides or 

 directs the activity into a definite channel. This question 

 is closely connected with that of origin, inherited memory 

 and inherited acquisition being often associated in one 

 interpretation of the facts — that adopted by those who 

 may be termed transmissionists. This again is a matter 

 the discussion of which may be profitably deferred. 



We have to concentrate our attention, then, on the facts 

 established by careful and critical observation, and it will 

 be convenient for many reasons to limit our field at first to 

 the readily observable habits and instincts of young birds. 

 Since they are easily hatched in an incubator so that all 

 maternal influence is avoided ; and since many of them 

 are active soon after birth ; since, too, certain species can 

 be reared without serious difficulty, and subjected to con- 

 ditions which are pretty well under control ; — on all these 

 grounds they afford satisfactory material for the investiga- 

 tion with which we are now concerned. 



Studies of the domestic chick have been made by several 

 observers, notably by Douglas Spalding,* by Professor 

 Preyer,f by Professor Eimer,^ and more recently by Dr. 

 Wesley Mills. § Spalding's observations have been widely 



* Macmillarts Magazine, February, 1873, vol. xxvii., " Instinct." 



t "The Mind of the Child," part i., "The Senses and the Will," 2nd ed., 

 1884, Eng. trans., by H. W. Brown. 



X " Organic Evolution," pp. 245-254, Eng. trans., by J. T. Cunningham, 

 1890. 



§ Transactions B. S. Canada, sect, iv., 1895, p. 249. 



