Preliminary Definitions and Illustrations. 19 



precision select the nice and ignore the nasty. Experience 

 has introduced a differentiation of response, and that of a 

 perfectly definite nature, and it is to this differentiation, ' 

 as the result of individual experience, that we may apply 

 the term " acquired." 



In the animal kingdom there are a great number of 

 skilled activities which are congenital in their definiteness 

 — which have not to be learnt, but are performed with 

 accuracy the first time circumstances and opportunity 

 permit. But in any circus we may see examples of skilled 

 activities which are not congenital, but have been taught 

 to the animals ; and any one who has possessed a clever 

 dog will have seen cases of skilled activities which the 

 animal has learnt for himself through the exercise of 

 his intelligence. It is to such activities as these, the 

 performance of which is the result of individual experience, 

 that the term " acquired " is properly applicable in the 

 sense in which it is here defined. 



It must not be supposed, however, that what is acquired 

 is always entirely new, if by this is meant something 

 altogether disconnected from any instinctive basis. Quite 

 the reverse. In the great majority of cases, what is ac- 

 quired is a modification of that which is congenital. Of 

 this, perhaps, there is no better example than that afforded 

 by falconry. Here the congenital instincts of certain birds 

 of prey, such as the peregrine falcon, are modified for the 

 purposes of sport ; and the modification is always of the 

 acquired type, since in all cases it is a wild bird — either a 

 young one captured fully fledged, or a nestling (eyas) 

 taken from the eyry — that the falconer takes in hand for 

 special training. One cannot breed falcons for the chase. 

 The training requires care, patience, and skill. The newly 

 captured bird has first to be accustomed to man ; she is 

 lightly hooded, and provided with bells, jesses, swivel, and 



