192 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



days ; a vigorous hiss on the observer's part made it cower 

 down into a corner, as if thoroughly frightened. The 

 fact is worth recording, since the almost complete absence 

 of fear was characteristic. The same bird Omega fought 

 on its third day with Y of two days, and they showed their 

 bills gripped in the adult fashion. 



The observations made, though far from thorough, left 

 a strong impression that the wild bird is in some respects 

 more endowed at birth than the chick than even the 

 cleverest chick, for they differ considerably. 



For instance, while Lloyd Morgan's chicks would gorge 

 themselves with useless or hurtful things, such as red- 

 worsted worms, the young gulls were from the first judicious 

 in their eating. During the first two days they got some 

 cotton-wool from their bedding into their mouths, but this 

 was inevitable. They often pecked at useless things or 

 at conspicuous spots, such as a letter on a piece of paper, 

 and so persistently at spots on the feeding saucer than one 

 without spots had to be used, but they never swallowed 

 anything injurious or useless. They would test particles 

 of tobacco, for instance, with an exceedingly rapid touch, 

 but they never went beyond testing. The same held good 

 for young coots. One of the gulls, X, was tried repeatedly 

 with a little twisted roll of paper ; he pecked at it three 

 times after much provocation, but threw it away each 

 time. On the positive side, it may be noted that they ate 

 small worms in the garden and small insects without any 

 hesitation the very first time. A noteworthy achievement 

 was breaking a worm into pieces. A heavy meal of a 

 particular sort seemed to be followed next day by re- 

 pugnance to the same kind of food ; they showed that 

 kind of repentance which is " the weight of undigested 

 meals ate yesterday." Thus when Alpha and Beta ate 

 too much fish on Friday they would not touch it on 



