vn ASSIMILATION AND READJUSTMENT 127 



(though they are often stupid enough to bite the tongs), 

 and similar facts ace recorded of frogs and toads. 1 In fact, 

 this grade of intelligence is fairly well marked among 

 Fish, Reptiles, and Amphibia. Similar instances among 

 Birds are given by Mr. Lloyd Morgan. 2 



" A moorhen chick, for whose benefit we had dug up worms 

 with a spade, and which, standing by, jumped on the first-turned 

 sod and seized every wriggling speck which caught his keen eye, 

 would soon run from some distance to me as soon as I took hold 

 of the spade." 



How are we to understand these cases ? 



There are three possible explanations. 



a. It may be that the animal is aware of . the con- 

 nection between the object to which it is at first indifferent, 

 and the feeding or other experience, whatever it be, in 

 which it is interested i.e., it observes and remembers that 

 the one leads to the other. 



Without at all denying that this may be the true 

 account of the process in certain cases, we must notice that 

 there are two other possible explanations which do not 

 imply so much intelligence. 



>b. The originally " indifferent " object may be directly 

 associated with the object of interest. 

 The keeper brings the food, and the sight and smell 

 thereof, which stimulate the animal to come forward 

 eagerly and seize it, are intertwined in its perception with 

 the sight of the keeper. The spade turns up the worms, 

 and the moorhen picks them. The excitement of picking 

 is thus fused with the sight of spade and digging, and this 

 spectacle takes on permanently the character which belongs 

 to it in certain experiences. In other words, we have a 

 slightly modified case of assimilation. As before the sight 

 of the black and yellow striped grub took upon itself the 

 character of an object of aversion, so the spade or the 

 keeper becomes an object of attraction. This explanation 

 is at least possible wherever the perception of the object 

 which thus acquires a power of exciting the organism can 

 be reasonably supposed to have been, in an earlier ex- 



1 Thierleben, VII. pp. 667 and 700. Cf. Weir. Dawn of Reason, p. 72. 



2 Habit and Instinct, p. 148. 



