THE ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOUR 149 



plex movements performed in a customary manner those of 

 locomotion and posture. Something additional to this is effected 

 in the cortex. Looking at the main features of the anatomy of 

 the latter, we see the extraordinary development of the motor 

 region and the tract of fibres connecting this with the spinal 

 nerve nuclei, and studying the results obtained clinically (in the 

 case of man) and experimentally (in the case of other mam- 

 malia), we see that the movements most suggestively connected 

 with cortex and pyramidal tracts are of a special kind : they are 

 skilled movements, and the facility to make them is acquired by 

 training and is ino^vidual that is, they are not transmitted by 

 heredity. Further, they are usually spontaneous movements, 

 or at least they are such when they are being learned. 



Looking again at anatomical, experimental, and clinical 

 results, we see that the cortex is to be associated with sensation 

 that develops into consciousness. The connections between it 

 and the sensory nuclei in the mid-brain are very obvious, and 

 all observational results point to the same conclusions. We 

 return to this matter in a later chapter. 



The Meaning of Behaviour. 



We define " behaviour " (premising that we are now dealing 

 with the higher animals) as the totality of the activities of the 

 entire sensori-motor system a definition which, however, must 

 not be strained. It excludes the activities of the viscera (heart 

 and bloodvessels, respiratory, nutritive, and excretory organs) 

 because these are subsidiary to the proper functioning of the 

 sensori-motor system. It excludes the activities of the repro- 

 ductive organs, because it is the individual animal that we are 

 studying, and not the race. In behaviour in general we see the 

 activity of the entire motor system, as in running, walking, 

 swimming, flying, and other modes of locomotion, as well as the 

 partial activities of bodily weapons, as in biting, clawing, etc. 

 It would include the actions of defence, flight, concealment, 

 aggression, the construction of nests and shelters, etc. It must 

 also include the actions carried out in play, courtship, etc., and 

 generally the " behaving " of the animal in the ordinary, non- 

 technical sense of the word. 



Organic behaviour is to be regarded biologically as constitut- 

 ing a series of adaptations. The things that occur in the outer 

 world cannot, in general, be prevented by the animal living 



