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Correspondence, Notes, etc.



INSTINCT OR IMITATION.


Sir,—I believe that the idea of birds building their nests in imitation

of those iu which they were born, originated with Charles Dixon ; and that

his idea was based upon the fact that a Chaffinch introduced into New

Zealand built a nest which by chance resembled, to a certain extent, that of

a native New Zealand bird. That this was a pure accident I proved sub¬

sequently by a reference to Seebohm’s “ History of British Birds.” Vol. II. p.

102, where a very similar Chaffinch nestis described as built on the banks of

the river Derwent, where there was no native nest from which the bird could

have copied the design (cf. “British Birds with their Nests and Eggs,” Vol.

II. p. 95 and “ Zoologist ” 1902, p. 258). I also pointed out that the Bengalee,

a descendant of the Striated Finch, produced by the Japs iu the remote

past and constantly bred in small cages for hundreds of years, so that the

young never saw the characteristic Mannikin’s nest in which their ancestors

were born, if turned loose in an aviary with growing shrubs immediately

reverted to the ancestral type of globular nest with entrance-hole in front r

that the Canary, which had been bred in cages for at least 300 years, if

turned loose in the same manner immediately constructed a typical saucer-

shaped nest in a bush; tjhese two instances alone sufficing to prove con¬

clusively that birds do not build by imitation, but in accordance with the

patterns impressed upon their brains and inherited through numerous,

generations from their ancestors : in other words that they build

instinctively.


Of late years there has been a tendency to dispute the right of the

lower vertebrates to the possession of reason, or even the capacity

to possess what are arrogantly imagined to be exclusively human

passions, yet intimate association with these creatures proves that many ot

them possess reasoning faculties of a very high order. I know of one case

iu which a retriever dog belonging to a friend of mine, being left on shore

by an oversight when his master was returning to his ship; sprang into the

water in pursuit of the boat ; but, finding that he was unable to overtake

it returned to land, raced along the sea-wall until far in advance of the

boat, then sprang into the water and swam obliquely forwards so that it

exactly arrived on the spot as the boat continued its course, and was lifted

on board; no man could have calculated the point to a greater nicety, and

my friend always marvelled at this intelligence, to which he admitted he

would have given no credence if he had not himself witnessed it.


But we know that instinct is in birds, as in beasts, subservient to

reason ; because a bird has the pattern of the ancestral nest in its mind,

it does not necessarily follow that it will not build upon other lines if its

common sense dictates something more suitable to its surroundings ; we

know that where rocks or buildings are wanting, a Swallow will build on the

branches of trees ; and I have seen the nests of the Swallow built under the

shelter of eaves, so that from the ground they looked almost like those of



