THE INTELLIGENCE OF MAMMALS 257 



which are most closely related to their own instinctive 

 movements. There may be no awareness of any advantage to 

 be gained thereby, as in the familiar imitation of sounds by 

 birds. Magpies, ravens, mocking-birds and especially parrots 

 attempt to repeat various sounds which they are accustomed 

 to hear. Their efforts, imperfect at first, improve with 

 repetition. Making a sound like one which is heard seems for 

 some reason to afford these birds an agreeable experience. 

 As Baldwin would say, hearing the sound is followed by an 

 effort to "reinstate the stimulus " and so gives rise to a 

 "circular reaction." Variations of its own notes which 

 approach the sounds heard become "stamped in," and the bird 

 gradually comes to imitate the sounds more closely, much 

 as we gradually improve upon the accuracy of our own 

 movements in playing ball or tennis. In this imitation we 

 need suppose no element of transferred association. Based 

 perhaps upon a primary instinct to utter notes in response 

 to the notes which it hears, which we often find in young 

 birds, the tendency of birds to imitate sounds involves but 

 the rudimentary form of intelligence required for the forma- 

 tion of simple associations. 



There is comparatively little imitation which is based on 

 a cold calculation of the advantages derived from copying 

 another animal. The imitation which is shown hi a certain 

 stage of the life of the child is intimately related to a certain 

 satisfaction derived from attaining conformity to copy. 

 This trait the child has in common with the bird. Probably 

 our own unconscious or half conscious imitation of the pro- 

 nunciation and mannerisms of the people we live with is a 

 phenomenon of a similar kind. How far this land of 

 imitation occurs in the mammals has not been clearly 

 brought out, but there are many indications of its influence 

 in several of our common domesticated species. 



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