2o6 WITHOUT MENTAL EFFORT 



imagination and also practise the necessary 

 body movements . Having learned, he relegates 

 the knowledge to his instinctive (subconscious) 

 mind and swims, like the dog, without mental 

 effort. In the same way, a person knits, or 

 plays the piano, without giving a thought to 

 the matter. Although I instance knitting and 

 playing on an instrument, these particular 

 accomplishments are not native to subcon- 

 scious mind in the way that swimming is 

 natural ; but like all acquired knowledge, it is 

 possible to commit them to memory, which is 

 the same subconscious mind. The commit- 

 ment, however, is often a slow and difficult 

 process ; but once the knowledge is acquired 

 it is always there, though not always accessible, 

 because the connection which links the two 

 minds is of a subtile nature ; the " switch," so 

 to speak, is apt to elude the grasp. 



But to return to the effects of the war on 

 animal Hfe. Certain nature observers in this 

 country have remarked on the odd behaviour 

 of pheasants consequent on the disturbance 

 now proceeding (January, 1916). Accounts 

 from many districts have been sent up and 

 recorded in the daily papers. These reports 

 are interesting, for though there is nothing 

 new in the fact that pheasant cocks crow and 

 beat their wings in response to distant sounds. 



