January 31, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



185 



the instinct of feai' is temporarily blocked or 

 allayed by tlie stronger parental instinct, 

 namely that of brooding the eggs or young. 



The kingfisher's feet are said to be " de- 

 formed," and the author remarks : " I am sure 

 a kingfisher would never pretend to walk." 

 To be sure this bird is somewhat of a clod- 

 hopper, since he walks upon his whole foot, 

 the proper attitude of a bear or man, and not 

 simply on his toes like most birds, but even 

 the young kingfishers are walkers and during 

 the close of their subterranean life they learn 

 the curious habit of walking backwards. 



The paragraph on imitation (V. foot of p. 

 175) needs considerable revision. How can 

 imitation be regarded as " the strongest factor 

 in the life of the chick from the time it leaves 

 the shell," if by " chick " " nestling " is meant, 

 or how can " nest-building " be ascribed 

 " largely to imitation," or " the lasting im- 

 pressions in a bird's life " be formed " during 

 the first few weeks of its existence"? Al- 

 though singing is primarily due to instinct, 

 it may be greatly modified through imitation, 

 but nest-building in all its initial and impor- 

 tant stages must be ascribed to instinct alone, 

 and all the acts of young altrieious birds show 

 that they are quite incapable of any effective 

 imitation whatever. As to intelligence, we 

 may add that the first trace of. it in the nest- 

 ling is its learning " to know " its parents, in 

 other words learning to limit its feeding reac- 

 tions to those conditions which count, namely, 

 to the presence or sounds of the old bird. In 

 some cases such a power is partially acquired 

 in two or three days. If young birds in the 

 nest did really imitate so keenly, why do we 

 not see the results of it in the European 

 cuckoo and the cowbird; or must we regard 

 them as bad children upon whom a good edu- 

 cation is thrown, away by their devoted foster- 

 parents ? 



The polity of the gull community and 

 nursery is not to be found in Mr. Finley's 

 chapter on this bird, but the subject will repay 

 the most careful study. Gull chicks are said 

 to " show little fear," but we have found them 

 very fearful after the fourth day, and from 

 that time onward their fear seems to increase. 



unless brought up by hand. " Each mother " 

 gull is said " to recognize her chicks largely 

 by location." On the contrary, we have found 

 by swapping chicks that they discriminate 

 absolutely. One of the fiercest instincts of 

 the herring gull is to defend its preserve and 

 drive off intruders, and many stray and tres- 

 passing chicks are thus daily slaughtered in 

 consequence. 



Of a tame shrike that would come to call 

 the author speaks in this wise : " His favorite 

 perch was the back of a chair near the win- 

 dow, where he could look out over the slope, 

 and here he would sit for an hour at a time, 

 as if thinking. And how do we know but he 

 was going over many of his hunts and hair- 

 breadth escapes and thinking of the spring- 

 time that was coming and the new experiences 

 it would bring ? " "I have often wished that 

 I could fathom the thoughts that Jimmy had." 

 This should be compared with a paragraph 

 where the robin, certainly a bird of average 

 intelligence, is dealt with : " I was standing 

 in the back yard watching a robin that came 

 for string to build her nest. I had wrapped 

 a piece several times about a limb to see 

 whether the bird would use any intelligence 

 in unwinding it. I have always been sceptical 

 of some of the stories that have been told of 

 birds reasoning. For example, one writer 

 tells of an oriole that took a piece of cloth and 

 hung it on a thorn so the thread could be 

 pulled out. When the cloth came loose, he 

 said the bird refastened it. Again, he has the 

 bird tying knots in the string to keep the ends 

 from fraying in the wind, or tying the sticks 

 together to make support for the nest. But 

 these are not bird actions: they are evolved 

 out of the fertile brain of the writer." "We 

 all recognize the " fertile brain " referred to, 

 about which enough has been said, but if birds 

 really have the power of abstract thought, and 

 therefore of a high degree of intelligence, 

 why should the fancies of the romancer 

 be deemed impossible? What, indeed, are 

 thoughts for — ? 



In spite of the criticisms of such matters 

 as are here suggested the volume is a fresh 

 contribution to popular ornithology, and is 



