254 THE INTELLIGENCE OF MAMMALS 



movements of the others, and by virtue of this trait the 

 fishes keep together and escape common dangers. A 

 similar kind of imitation is met with even in insects. Ants, 

 according to Wasmann, not infrequently imitate one an- 

 other's acts, and other observers have remarked upon the 

 same proclivity in bees and termites. 



Imitation plays an especially important role in the life 

 of birds. According to Lloyd Morgan, "If one of a group 

 of chicks learn by casual experience to drink from a tin of 

 of water, others will run and peck at the water, and thus 

 learn to drink. A hen teaches her little ones to pick up 

 grain and other food by pecking on the ground and dropping 

 suitable materials before them, while they seemingly imitate 

 her action in seizing the grain. One may make chicks and 

 pheasants peck by simulating the action of a hen with a 

 pencil point or pair of fine forceps. According to Mr. 

 Peal the Assamese find that the young jungle pheasants will 

 perish if their pecking responses are not thus artifically 

 stimulated; and Professor Clay pole tells me that this is 

 also the case with young ostriches hatched in an incubator." 

 Chicks avoid objects which they perceive arouse alarm in 

 others, and if they see other chicks pecking at things of 

 which they stand a little in awe they frequently muster up 

 courage and follow their companions. 



Birds learn to fear certain enemies, such as hawks, at 

 least in part, through their instinctive response to the signs 

 of alarm in other birds. Their instinct of following guides 

 them in their migration routes, in which, despite the con- 

 tention of Herr Gatke, their course is in all probability a 

 matter of tradition. 



In contrast to the above cases which may be regarded as 

 instinctive responses to particular stimuli are those instances 

 in which an animal more or less deliberately copies the actions 



