July 11, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



71 



ing. All the robins that I have in captivity, 

 some sixteen or seventeen in number, of which 

 three or four pairs breed annually, are unable 

 to build a nest-structiire, though furnished 

 with every facility, except under particular 

 'Conditions which I am about to relate. They 

 Jiave been unable apparently to erect a nest 

 of the conventional robin type. The trees in 

 the room in which they are confined seem to 

 present every kind of fork and crotch and an- 

 gle of branch that robins select out of doors 

 for nest sites. After watching these birds for 

 two years in their efforts to build nests, when 

 they were supplied with every material, the 

 mud for the cup and all kinds of grasses and 

 rootlets for the foundation and superstruc- 

 ture, I found that apparently they were unable 

 to formulate a nest that would stay together. 

 T therefore provided them with small circular 

 "baskets, which were at once taken possession 

 -of, and generally the process of nest-building 

 "was as follows : They selected various grasses 

 and rootlets, and after much work, covering a 

 period of some three or four days, they lined 

 the baskets in a manner that seemed to them 

 satisfactory, when they proceeded to lay eggs 

 and go through the ordinary and regular pro- 

 •cesses of robins' lives during the breeding sea- 

 son. However, in most cases they were so 

 much interfered with by the other birds at 

 large in the room with them that they failed 

 to succeed in hatching their eggs; or, if they 

 did hatch them, the young were destroyed by 

 other birds whenever an oi)i)ortunity was 

 given. 



It is rather diiEcult in such a heterogeneous 

 company to determine exactly what transpires ; 

 but this is about the case: They do not at- 

 tempt to build any cup of mud in such a nest 

 as I have indicated, but the particular pair 

 of robins in question did not put a mud floor in 

 the basket. I was unable to see them feed or 

 take care of the very small young robin which 

 I observed in their nest and which was their 

 own progeny, during its early infancy; but 

 when I substituted the foster-children, as I 

 may call them, that were older than the young 

 bird, all the operations of feeding and taking 

 care of the young were apparent. The female 

 bird brooded the young ones for periods of 



from fifteen minutes to an hour, while the 

 male bird constantly brought her food for the 

 young. He also removed all excrement as it 

 was evacuated and carried it at least ten feet 

 away from the nest, and generally farther. 

 Twice I saw him eat the excrement after he 

 had laid it on the floor. I have watched robins 

 carefullj' out of doors; and so far as I am 

 able to judge, these robins in captivity went 

 through all of the actions and attained all 

 the results that robins attain with broods out 

 of doors. It is not a little singular that they 

 neglected, or that I fancied they neglected, to 

 take care of one of the young ones, and that 

 their attention was entirely concentrated on a 

 single bird. All of these actions that I have 

 recorded must have been instincts awakened 

 by the various stimuli which precede instinct- 

 ive acts, for no education by imitating the 

 acts of older birds was possible. 



It is also interesting in this connection to 

 record the fact that another pair of robins 

 breeding, or attempting to breed, under simi- 

 lar conditions, so far as I know have failed 

 to lay eggs, or their eggs have been stolen 

 by other birds after they were laid. However, 

 the female parent is incubating and is fully as 

 'hroody' as any hen would be under like cir- 

 cumstances. That is, I may go up to the nest 

 where she sits, and it is absolutely necessary 

 for me to take her from the nest by force if I 

 wish to see what- is beneath her. At such 

 times she bites my finger and fights, and when 

 removed from the nest, utters all the alarm 

 cries and notes that a bird out of doors does 

 when disturbed. 



The special point to bear in mind in consid- 

 ering the foregoing records is the fact that all 

 of the birds in question were hand-raised — ■ 

 birds that cannot have gained anything by ex- 

 perience or education from acts performed by 

 their parents; and all of their doings that I 

 have recorded I suggest are in the line of pure 

 instinct. 



William E. D. Scott. 



Peincetok University. 



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