NOVEMBER 279 



observed concerning several species of birds in widely 

 separated orders that, before the shell of the egg was 

 cracked, the chick within, hammering and ' cheeping ' 

 in its attempt to get out, would cease instantly and lie 

 perfectly still when the parent bird sounded the note 

 of danger, but would resume operations when she 

 uttered a reassuring note. 1 



From this it appears that the consciousness of the 

 unhatched chick is sufficiently active to exchange oral 

 communications with a mother outside the shell. In 

 fact the chick has been born before it is hatched, and 

 it is suggested that it must be regarded as sentient 

 and conscious from the moment it pierces the air- 

 chamber within the egg and becomes a lung- breathing 

 creature. 



The young of gallinaceous and certain other fowls 

 display upon hatching a much more precocious 

 intelligence than other nestlings. They are able to run 

 at once, the megapodes, as aforesaid, being actually 

 able to fly at once and cater for themselves. Their 

 motor organs are so well developed as to respond 

 immediately to their congenital automatism ; whereas 

 those birds which are hatched blind and depend upon 

 food being brought to the nest by their parents, 

 acquire the power of locomotion slowly and more or 

 less awkwardly. Similar want of uniformity prevails 



1 Naturalist in La Plata, p. 90. Mr. Lloyd Morgan has distinguished 

 at least six notes of different significance uttered by domestic chicks, 

 namely, the gentle 'piping,' expressive of contentment; a further 

 low note, expressive of enjoyment ; the danger-note of warning ; the 

 plaintive ' cheeping,' expressive of want ; a sharp squeak of irritation ; 

 and, lastly, a shrill cry of distress, as when a chick gets separated 

 from the rest of the brood. 



