EDWARD BURGESS. 49 



extent, that animals perform them without being taught 

 and always in the same way. The instincts of nest 

 building and migration are something not acquired by 

 experience, but has been transmitted through countless 

 generations of birds, until at the proper time both actions 

 are performed by an impulse, which when the conditions 

 are normal, cannot be controlled. Effort is required in 

 both cases and conscious effort ; at the same time it is 

 instinctive, because it is inherited. 



Intelligence in animals implies something that is over and 

 above instinct. It is correlated with instinct, and at the 

 same time it indicated a capability on the part of the ani- 

 mal, to adapt itself to new conditions and to meet new and 

 unforeseen emergencies when they arise. An animal 

 guided wholly by instinct must perform all its actions in a 

 fixed and unvarying way. When confronted by any new 

 difficulty, if it depends upon instinct alone, it is at a loss 

 how to proceed, and so is helpless in the presence of it. 

 Here intelligence comes into play, and an animal is rescued 

 from trouble or gains its point by possessing this pliancy 

 of mind, which is of the greatest service to it in the 

 struggle for life. 



It is true- that instincts have arisen from this necessity 

 of adaptation; but they are gradual acquisitions acquired 

 in the long course of years and are fixed by heredity. 

 They are very wonderful and are admirably fitted to 

 serve the interests of the animals possessing them; but 

 they are not sufficient for sudden emergencies. These 

 can only be provided for by that other faculty of intelli- 

 gence — that is if you choose to call it another faculty — 

 which animals possess in varying degrees. The action 

 in such cases is neither involuntary nor automatic, but 

 is directed by an intelligent will. Frequent repetition 

 of it eventually converis it into an instinct, but this is 

 obviously not its character in the beginning. 



I have said that it is a growing belief that animals do 



