16 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
clear, green water. No sign of life is visible, save perhaps 
a few coalfish or pollack-whiting cruising recklessly round 
the narrow limits, or two or three sea perch routing among 
the seaweed. But the sound of the key turning in the door 
lock and of the keeper’s feet upon the wooden stair rouses 
the pond into vehement turmoil. Great brown forms arise 
from the depths; broad tail fins lash the surface, and gaping 
mouths appear in all directions. Experience has taught these 
codfish to associate the sound of the keeper’s key and footfall 
with meal-times, and so lulled their natural dread of man that 
they will eagerly take food from his hand. Some years ago 
(I know not whether the same may be witnessed now) the 
aged lady who acted as keeper had imparted further in- 
struction to one or more of these fish. One, at all events, 
a great cod of about 12 Ib. weight, suffered her to "ft him 
out of the water in her arms and place him in her lap, there 
to receive a meal of mussels or soft crab shoved into his 
gullet with a wooden spoon. Truly, one could hardly 
imagine a performance more at variance with the instincts 
and habits of a pelagic fish. 
However fully convinced one may be that the lower 
animals are endowed with conscious and volitional energy, it 
can hardly be questioned that many of their most definite 
and characteristic actions are performed in compliance with 
a motor impulse independent of consciousness or volition; and 
this not only in extreme youth but at all periods of maturity. 
To select an example first from juvenile behaviour—the 
homely proverb, ‘‘ It’s an ill bird that fouls its own nest,”’ 
is derived from the cleanly habits of nestlings. Mr Lloyd 
Morgan received a spotted fly-catcher, about a day old, with 
eyes not yet open. .. . . It was placed in a small chip 
box lined with cotton-wool, and kept in a corner of the incu- 
bator drawer. So soon as it had taken a morsel or two of 
food at intervals of about thirty to forty minutes, it would 
energetically thrust its hindquarters over the-edge of the box 
and void its excrement. Jays and other young nestlings also 
show this instinctive procedure. It would be grotesque to 
credit a blind nestling with conscious and deliberate hygienic 
precaution. We ride airily out of the difficulty by pronounc- 
