46 Habit and Instinct. 



seemed to take no heed of water in a shallow vessel. They 

 pecked, however, at drops on my finger-tip, or on the end 

 of a toothpick, and for long preferred to take it in this way 

 to drinking from the vessel. Presumably in the natural 

 state they depend largely for water on the dew-drops that 

 bead the vegetation. Moorhen chicks liked to take water 

 from my finger-tips. But when they were dipped in a 

 bath, by holding them in the hand and gradually sub- 

 merging the palm, as soon as the water reached the bird's 

 body he bent down his head and drank. 



It has already been noted that if food is moved about 

 before newly hatched birds, it more readily catches their 

 eye. The hen, as we may see in any poultry-yard, 

 lifts and drops before her chicks the grain or other food 

 which she wishes them to eat. Moving insects, grubs, or 

 caterpillars more readily attract their attention than 

 objects which are still, and if small are struck at. A 

 chick a day or so old will catch a running fly at from the 

 seventh to the twelfth shot. Pheasants are quite as sharp ; 

 but ducklings do not catch running flies so readily, per- 

 haps because they do not walk so well. Even protective 

 coloration is of little value if there is movement, so sharp 

 are the eyes of young birds. The caterpillar of the small 

 white butterfly (Pieris rapas) on a nasturtium leaf, with 

 which its clear green colour assimilated well, was picked 

 off by a moorhen chick the moment it moved its head. 

 Eecently hatched stick insects (Diapheromera femorata), 

 which Professor Poulton gave me, were snapped off the 

 lime leaves directly they moved. As in the case of palatable 

 and distasteful insects respectively, there does not seem to 

 be any instinctive differentiation of response according as 

 the insects are armdd with stings or not. That is a matter 

 of individual acquisition. 



The following, however, is an account of one of 



