INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR OF YOUNG BIRDS 85 
and balance the body so soon and so well as to show us that 
this mode of procedure is congenital, and has not to be 
eradually acquired through the guidance of experience. 
Young water-birds swim with neat and orderly strokes the 
very first time they are gently placed in water. Even little 
chicks a day or two old can swim well. Dr. Thorndike, who 
draws attention to this fact,* appears to accept the view, 
Fic. 15.—Newly-hatched Chick swimming. 
suggested by Dr. Bashford Dean, that the movements are not 
those of swimming but only of running. I have carefully 
watched the action through the glass walls of a tank and 
compared it with that of a young moor-hen. In the two cases 
it is quite similar in type, and the type appears to be different 
from that of running, though it is perhaps hard to distinguish 
* Psychological Review, May, 1899, p. 286. 
