238 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



rudimentary reason and by memory. I have not 

 the least doubt that, had these young Chaffinches 

 been hatched in an alien nest in this country, and 

 never allowed to see a nest typical of their species, 

 or have any connection with old and experienced 

 birds, the results would have been still more startling 

 and strange." 



Nor can I allow that Mr. Allen has disproved the 

 theory of imitation and memory by extending it to 

 animals much lower in the scale of development. 

 Such members must and do possess considerable 

 power in this respect. Besides, it must always be 

 remembered that the young bird or animal profits 

 by the old one's experience, and imitates to a great 

 extent the work of its companions. " Inherited 

 Habit " would be proved at once if Mr. Allen's 

 young turtle sought by resistless impulse a similar 

 place to deposit its eggs to that which its parents 

 did before it, if it had been hatched away from its 

 favourite sands and reared in strict seclusion from 

 its kind. Inherited Habit is but another name for 

 blind instinct ; and to maintain that such an extra- 

 ordinary power is the sole guiding influence in such 

 a complex undertaking as that of building a nest, 

 or of singing a song, can and does " border on 

 absurdity/' It ascribes to a bird a mental attribute 



