INSTINCT. 397 



Their case was precisely analogous to that of the Adi- 

 rondack calves. The two opposite instincts relative to the 

 same object ripen in succession. If the first one engenders 

 a habit, that habit will inhibit the application of the second 

 instinct to that object. All animals are tame during the 

 earliest phase of their infancy. Habits formed then limit 

 the effects of whatever instincts of wildness may later be 

 evolved. 



Mr. Romanes gives some very curious examples of the 

 way in which instinctive tendencies may be altered by the 

 habits to which their first ' objects ' have given rise. The 

 cases are a little more complicated than those mentioned in 

 the text, inasmuch as the object reacted on not only starts 

 a habit which inhibits other kinds of impulse toward it (al- 

 though such other kinds might be natural), but even modi- 

 fies by its own peculiar conduct the constitution of the 

 impulse which it actually awakens. 



Two of the instances in question are those of hens who 

 hatched out broods of chicks after having (in three previ- 

 ous years) hatched ducks. They strove to coax or to com- 

 pel their new progeny to enter the Avater, and seemed much 

 jjerplexed at their unwillingness. Another hen adopted a 

 brood of young ferrets which, having lost their mother, 

 were put under her. During all the time they were left 

 with her she had to sit on the nest, for they could not wan- 

 der like young chicks. She obeyed their hoarse growling 

 as she would have obeyed hei' chickens' peep. She combed 

 out their hair with her bill, and " used frequently to stop 

 and look with one eye at the wriggling nestful, with an in- 

 quiring gaze, expressive of astonishment." At other times 

 she would fly up with a loud scream, doubtless because the 

 orphans had nipped her in their search for teats. Finally, 

 a Brahma hen nursed a young peacock during the enor- 

 mous period of eighteen months, and never laid any eggs 

 during all this time. The abnormal degree of pride which 

 she showed in her wonderful chicken is described by Dr. 

 Romanes as ludicrous.* 



* For the cases in full see Mental Evolution in Animals, pp, 213-217. 



