REASONABLE BUT UNREASONING 



brought them up on milk, and that the first time 

 he gave them solid food, one of them took it and ran 

 to a pail of -water which it had never before seen, 

 thrust the food into it, washed it, and then ate it. 

 When no water was within reach, he has seen the 

 coon rub the food a moment in its paws and then 

 drop it. Dallas Lore Sharp says that his tame 

 coon would go through the motions of washing 

 its food on the upturned bottom of its empty tub, 

 and that it would try to wash its oysters in the straw 

 on the floor of its cage. This habit, I say, doubtless 

 had its origin in some past need or condition of 

 the life of the race of coons, and it persists after 

 that need is gone. 



The story that is told of the brakeman upon 

 a train of cars in Russia, who at each stop of the 

 train went from wheel to wheel, as was once the cus- 

 tom in all countries, and hit it a sharp blow vrith a 

 hammer, saying on being asked why he did it, "I 

 do not know, sir, it is my orders," illustrates very 

 well the unreasoning character of animal instinct. 

 The animal has its orders, but it does not think or 

 ask why. 



At Bahia Blanca, in South America, Darwin saw 

 a bird, the casarita, that builds its nest in holes 

 which it drills in the banks of streams like our king- 

 fisher. At one place where he was stopping, the walls 

 around the house were built of hardened mud, and 

 were bored through and through with holes by these 

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