SiiCT.XVL ii. OF INSTINCT. 189 



where they were hatched, not only gives the note 

 of alarm at the approach of men or dogs, that her 

 young may conceal themfelves ; but flying and 

 fcreaming near the adverfary, (he appears more foli- 

 citous and impatient, as he recedes from her family, 

 and thus endeavours to miflead him, and frequently 

 fucceeds in her defign. Thefe laft inftances are fo 

 appofite to the fituation, rather than to the natures 

 of the creatures, that ufe them ; and are fo fimilar 

 to the actions of men in the fame circumftances, 

 that we cannot but believe, that they proceed from 

 a fimilar principle. 



Mifs M. E. Jacfon acquainted me, that (he wit- 

 nefled this autumn an agreeable inftance of fagacity 

 in a little bird, which feemed to ufe the means to 

 obtain an end ; the bird repeatedly hopped upon a 

 poppy-ftem, and (hook the head with its bill, till 

 many feeds were fcattered, then it fettled on the 

 ground, and eat the feeds, and again repeated the 

 lame management. Sept. i, i794._ 



On the northern coaft of Ireland a friend of mine 

 faw above a hundred crows at once preying upon 

 mufcles ; each crow took a mufcle up into the air 

 twenty or forty yards high, and let it fall on the 

 (tones, and thus by breaking the (hell, got poflef- 

 fion of the animal. A certain philofopher (I think 

 it was Anaxagoras) walking along the fea-fhore to 

 gather (hells, one of thefe unlucky birds mistaking 

 his bald head for a (lone, dropped a (hell-filh upon 

 it, and killed at once a philofopher and an oyfter. 



Our domeftic animals, that have fome liberty, are 

 alfo pofleffed of fome peculiar traditional knowledge; 

 dogs and cats have been forced into .each other's fo- 

 ciety, though naturally animals of a very different 

 kind, and have hence learned from each other to 

 eat dog's grafs, (agroitis canina) when they are fick, 

 to promote vomiting. I have feen a cat miftake the 



O 2, blade 



