122 Instinct and Intelligence 



necessarily made by birds of their visual, audi- 

 tory, and tactile sensory apparatuses in order 

 to maintain their existence. The evolution of 

 the basal nervous system of birds, in response 

 to the action of their environment, accounts for 

 the surprising instinctive qualities displayed by 

 many of this class of animal ; the careful pro- 

 vision they make for their young, their self- 

 reliance, jealousy, and other instinctive quali- 

 ties are so well known that it seems unnecessary 

 to dilate on this subject. That these qualities 

 are hereditary, and become manifest without 

 having been learnt or gained by experience, 

 is well illustrated in the account Prof. Lloyd 

 Morgan gives of a young moorhen which he 

 had hatched in an incubator, and watched from 

 day to day, almost from hour to hour. 1 When 

 about nine weeks old this bird was swimming 

 in a pool at the bend of a stream. A puppy 

 ran down to the stream barking, and made a 

 feint from the bank towards the young bird. In 

 a moment the moorhen dived, disappeared 

 from view, and soon partially reappeared, his 

 head just peeping above the water beneath the 



1 Instinct and Experience, by C. Lloyd Morgan, p. 4. 



