4 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. I. 



does in reality act, not immediately, but mediately, or 

 through the medium of moral or intellectual influence, 

 upon the nature and consciousness of the creature, in 

 the production of the various and often wonderful ac- 

 tions which they perform," * we shall at once account, 

 as it has been said, for those perplexing contrarieties 

 perceptible in the animal creation, and be enabled to 

 understand the otherwise incongruous mixtures of skill 

 and stupidity, sagacity and ignorance, which is there 

 exhibited. We may thus account for the hen carefully 

 turning the eggs upon which she so perseveringly sits> 

 that every part may be exposed to the vital warmth 

 which she affords, while she yet knows not the differ- 

 ence between these very eggs, and pieces of chalk which 

 may be substituted . in their room. The young of the 

 cuckoo, in like manner, is impelled to exert all its 

 powers to dislodge the young of its foster-parents, so 

 that they may not interfere with itself ; an impulse 

 which we cannot possibly ascribe to its own mental 

 consciousness ; or otherwise, as Mr. French justly ob- 

 serves, " the half-grown cuckoe must, indeed, be a rara 

 avis in terris, a feathered philosopher of no mean or 

 dispicable talent." 



(4.) The preceding observations upon the nature 

 of instinct, chiefly drawn from the writings of others, 

 are sufficient at least, in our estimation to show 

 that this faculty cannot be confounded with reason, 

 properly so called, without a direct violation of all lo- 

 gical induction, a stopping short, as it w r ere, of those 

 consequences, which the admission of reason in the 

 animal world inevitably lead to. Here, indeed, we 

 should have paused, had the question at issue been 

 merely confined to such limits : but it involves much 

 higher considerations ; for, if there be no difference 

 between the volition of an animal and that of MAN, the 

 naturalist may well place them upon an equality and 

 we must either exalt the one into rational and, there- 

 fore, accountable beings, or we must debase the other 

 to a rank among the brutes. It has been well said, 



* ZooL Journ. tor March, 18'24 



