Imitation. 169 



imitation, or that congenitally automatic behaviour which, 

 from the observer's standpoint, is imitative. 



Passing reference may here be made to those instinctive 

 actions for which mimicry is now a recognized biological 

 term. Certain distasteful butterflies, for example, are 

 mimicked by others, which are believed to have escaped 

 destruction because of their mimetic resemblance to the 

 others. There is no intentional imitation. The mimicry 

 is of purely objective significance. And not only in form, 

 but also in their instinctive behaviour, are many of these 

 insects, and perhaps some birds, mimetic of others. Such 

 behaviour is, from the purely objective point of view, 

 imitative. But since there does not seem to be any good 

 ground for supposing that the mimetic behaviour is called 

 forth by the stimulus of such behaviour in the models, it 

 does not fall under the head of the instinctive imitation we 

 are considering. By using the term "mimetic" in its 

 biological signification,* we may mark off these cases of 

 mimicry in behaviour from true examples of instinctive 

 imitation — that is to say, instinctive behaviour called forth 

 by similar behaviour in others. 



Now, as we have already seen, instinctive procedure 

 forms part — and a not unimportant part — of the raw 

 material on which intelligence exercises its influence, 

 fashioning and moulding it, and guiding the activities 

 concerned to finer issues in individual adaptation. The 



as he describes it. But the instinctive imitations of young animals do not 

 necessarily tend to reproduce their own stimuli. A chick, seeing its com- 

 panions run away or crouch, will do so itself; and this we should describe 

 as an imitative action, but (save for the observer) there is here no repro- 

 duction of the initiating stimulus (see " Mental Development of the Child 

 and the Eace," jjasiim). 



* Mr. C. A. Witchell, for example, in treating of the song of birds, uses 

 the term " mimicry" as equivalent to " imitation," which is confusing to the 

 biologist, for whom " mimicry " as a technical term has acquired a restricted 

 signification. 



