Instinct and its Lessons 121 



to abandon their brood to their fate. 1 On the 8th of 

 the month the young were still in the nest, two of them 

 perpetually having their heads at the door, and the old 

 birds were assiduously feeding them. On the Qth there 

 was no trace of birds, either in the air or at the door, 

 but something could be seen moving inside. This, on 

 examination, proved to be a solitary young one, 

 crouching forlorn upon the floor. It was brought down 

 and given the chance to fly, when, like the young Bee 

 described by Reaumur, it knew all about it, going off 

 as though it had done nothing else all its life, soaring 

 and circling high in the air, and apparently hawking 

 after insects. I watched it for about a quarter of an 

 hour, and left it so occupied. 



If with Mr. Wallace we define instinct to be "the 

 performance by an animal of complex acts, absolutely 

 without instruction or previously acquired knowledge," - 

 cases like this would certainly appear to be included. 

 There are, however, acts still more complex, which seem 

 equally instinctive : so complex as to preclude the idea 

 that they can be governed by anything but an inbred 

 guiding power, a part of the creature's self. To this Mr. 

 Wallace appears to demur. He inclines to believe that 

 even the song of birds and the construction of their 

 nests, are not instinctive to them, but learnt by ex- 

 perience. As to the nests, he holds that we shall have 

 no satisfactory evidence of instinct till eggs shall have 

 been hatched by steam and the young birds placed in a 

 covered garden, with plenty of building materials, to see 

 what kind of nest they will construct. I do not know 



1 While observing the nest, I remarked that though the young 

 birds appear to fight selfishly for the foremost place at the door, 

 to secure food, yet just before a visit of the parent, one that held 

 the position, who had been fed on the previous visit, drew suddenly 

 back and another came forward. This looked very like another 

 case of self-denying instinct. Were there not some such provision, 

 a weak nestling might easily be starved in the background, as the 

 parents stay but a moment at the opening, and feed the bird before 

 them. 



2 Natural Selection, p. 204. 



