534. THE EVOLUTION OF MIND 



Levick gives a graphic description of a pastime among 

 Adelie penguins in the Far South. They would board an 

 ice-floe until it could hold no more, and get carried by the 

 tide to the lower end of the rookery, where every bird would 

 suddenly jump off and swim back against the stream to 

 catch a fresh floe and get another ride down. 



A digger-wasp coming to its burrow with a paralysed 

 spider has been seen to place its booty in the fork of a plant 

 away from the ants. Another has been seen to grip a small 

 stone and use it to beat down the earth over its burrow. 

 Forel's ants brought from Alegeria, where they have open 

 doors to their nests, began to close them with pellets when 

 they were bothered by visitors of other species. Very sug- 

 gestive also of awareness are some of the normal changes 

 in instinctive behaviour. Thus some woodpeckers bring 

 their young first seeds, then partly opened cones, then com- 

 plete cones. 



The scientific mind is almost morbidly afraid of being 

 too generous; but common sense recoils from making the 

 world magical. Thus it is well known that instinctive be- 

 haviour often changes greatly with the state and situation 

 of the organism, and it is usual to give physiological explana- 

 tions of the change. We often doubt if these physiological 

 explanations are adequate until we supplement them with 

 Prof. Lloyd Morgan's view that instinct is " organic be- 

 haviour suffused with awareness ". Speaking of the Noddy 

 Tern, Prof. J. B. Watson writes: "Before the egg is laid 

 the birds are timid and will fly up at the slightest dis- 

 turbance. After the egg is laid the birds become exceedingly 

 bold. They will fiercely attack the encroachment of any 

 other bird and will even attack the human intruder. A 

 large number of the birds will actually sit on the nest and 



