262 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



difficult to believe that any sentient creature can be 

 totally devoid of conscious volition. 



In 1873 Dr. Mobius reported to the Society of 

 Natural Science for Schleswig-Holstein some observa- 

 tions by Herr Amtsberg of Stralsund on the behaviour 

 of a large pike. Being confined in an aquarium this 

 fish wrought such havoc among other fish in the same 

 tank that Herr Amtsberg caused it to be separated 

 from them by a sheet of plate-glass. Thereafter, every 

 time the pike made a dash at one of its neighbours, it 

 received a severe blow on the nose. The predatory 

 instinct was so strong that it took three months to 

 convince the pike that every attempt upon the life of 

 these small fish resulted in pain to itself. Thereafter 

 it let them alone, even when, after six months, the 

 glass partition was removed. Experience had taught 

 it that these particular fish could not be attacked with 

 impunity, whereupon its intelligence came into play to 

 control its predatory instinct, although, when new fish 

 were put into the tank, it went for them at once. 



Animals higher in the scale than pike, which rank 

 low in the class of fishes, show more precocity in pro- 

 fiting by experience, even when deprived of the advan- 

 tage of parental example and guidance. To some 

 chicks reared in an incubator Mr. Lloyd Morgan threw 

 caterpillars of the cinnabar moth. These larvae are 

 conspicuously marked with yellow and black rings, 

 and have a flavour most distasteful to birds. The 

 inexperienced chicks seized them greedily, but dropped 

 them at once, wiping their bills in disgust, and seldom 

 could be induced to touch them a second time. Next 



