The Emotions in their Relation to Instinct. 199 



a contented cheeping note, preen his feathers, wringing the 

 water from them, shaking himself with obvious pleasure, 

 now rubbing his head across his breast and sides; now 

 stretching out his neck and bending his head to get at the 

 parts close under the throat. All these actions were, it 

 would seem, suffused with pleasurable enjoyment. Then 

 he would walk about or wade in the stream, picking up 

 odds and ends and testing them in his bill, all the while 

 nodding his head and nicking his tail in a way that itself 

 is indicative of pleasure. When, before his companion died 

 from the effects of a long journey, the two were wandering 

 about my small garden, they would occasionally approach 

 each other bending forwards, and standing low with bent 

 legs and heads thrown back, would open their red beaks, 

 swear in harsh and angry tones, and hold the nearly naked 

 wings high up over the back in a peculiar and highly 

 characteristic way. An emotional state was expressed in 

 the most unmistakable manner. 



Let us assume that all these activities are instinctive in 

 the broader sense, if not in the narrower ; and they appear 

 for the most part to be instinctive, even in the narrower 

 acceptation of the term. They are thus congenital in their 

 nature. And let us fix our attention on the very first 

 performance of one of the complex activities, — say the 

 instinctive activities concerned in taking a bath which 

 seem to be called forth by running water. Granting this 

 to be the requisite stimulus, let us try and interpret the 

 performance, assuming, for the purposes of discussion, that 

 the pleasurable state is the subjective aspect of the motor 

 activities ; the visceral effects taking only a subordinate 

 share in the calling forth of pleasurable feelings. 



It will be necessary first to say somewhat — as little as 

 is consistent with clearness — concerning the nature of 

 pleasure and its antithesis pain. First of all let us exclude 



