INSTINCT 95 



of water might be indicated; the ducklings just know 

 instinctively where water is to be found. A friend of mine 

 once urged as a fact of which our boasted scientific theories 

 of instinct give no explanation the circumstance that the 

 burrowing mammals of California, before an unusually 

 rainy season, would leave their holes near the gulches and 

 migrate to the hillsides. Long before any indications were 

 furnished to the weather bureau the instinct of these animals 

 was said to warn them of the danger of floods. Some time 

 previous to the conversation the mammals were said to 

 have emigrated from the lower parts of the valleys, and 

 therefore a rainy winter was predicted. It so turned out, 

 however, that the season in question proved to be an unusu- 

 ally dry one, and the wonderful instinct of the burrowing 

 mammals gave them a false alarm. The migration of the 

 mammals may or may not have taken place as reported, 

 but the episode illustrates a very prevalent misconception of 

 the nature and possibilities of instinct. Instincts frequently 

 have a relation to future events, but that they involve a 

 mysterious knowledge of things unpredictable by human 

 reason still awaits proof. 



With all their wonderful adaptiveness instincts are far 

 from ideally perfect Much of Mark Twain's remarks on 

 the futility and imbecility, the wasted effort and labor at 

 cross purposes shown in the behavior of ants may easily be 

 verified by any observer. Flesh flies will deposit their 

 eggs on the carrion plant (Stapelia hirsuta) whose odor 

 resembles that of decaying meat on which the eggs are 

 usually laid. The domestic hen will sometimes attempt to 

 hatch out corn cobs or other inanimate objects, and her 

 maternal instincts will lead her to foster ducklings as readily 

 as her own kin. Sometimes animals devour their own 

 eggs or young, as I have several times observed in cray- 



