4 COWARD, Mote on the behaviour of a Blackbird. 



is a rival is, of course, not strange ; many animals fail to 

 recognise themselves or rather their images when con- 

 fronted with a looking-glass. No doubt it was mere 

 accident that first led my blackbird to the spot on the 

 wall from which it could see this imaginary foe. It is 

 the psychology of the habit, for habit it certainly is of 

 individuals, which is so puzzling. We have a problem in 

 mental development — brain power — in an animal whose 

 mental scope we cannot gauge. Looking at menta. 

 power from the purely human standpoint we can hardly 

 sever memory from the faculty of reason. Without doubt 

 this bird, and the others I have mentioned, had infallible 

 or at any rate excellent memories. It can hardly be 

 argued that instinct takes my blackbird morning after 

 morning to the same wall to see if its rival is ready for 

 another trial of strength. Instinct, as we understand it, 

 is originated or evolved through some advantage directly 

 gained by either the species or the individual ; there can 

 surely be no gain to the individual in a series of fruitless 

 battles which invariably have the same termination. 



Instinct and not memory undoubtedly regulates the 

 habits of certain animals, though the lower we go in the 

 scale the more difficult it becomes to separate instinct 

 from purely mechanical, haphazard actions. The me- 

 chanical movements of some of the lower vertebrates are 

 more fallible than the growth of some climbing plants, 

 whose tendrils reach out and feel for some object to grip 

 with apparently intelligent precision. But with birds, 

 though instinct pure and simple may lead the chick to 

 peck for food on emerging from the egg, or cause it to 

 crouch at the shadow of the approaching hawk, memory 

 undoubtedly plays a most important part in its after life. 



Memory, if we conclude as we safely may that this is 

 the same bird that fought so persistently last year, has 



