CHAPTER IX. 



THE INSTI^'CT A:ST) IKTELLIGENCE OF ANIMALS. 



It used to be the fashion to put down all animal 

 intelligence as " instinct," and to consider it as 

 something altogether different from the intelligence 

 of human beings. What " instinct " meant was not 

 always very clearly defined ; and the use of the term 

 was often merely a tacit excuse for setting aside the 

 claims of animals to humane treatment and sympa- 

 tlietic study of their idiosyncrasies. 



The term instinct^ however^ is very legitimately 

 .applied to a certain class of cases, viz., those in which 

 Hn animal, placed under special circumstances in which 

 it has never been placed before, knows at once how to 

 act in the manner best calculated to secure its own 

 advantage; and in which every individual of the 

 kind, placed under those circumstances, will act in 

 precisely the same manner. In these cases it is 

 understood that the "instinct "is the result of habit 

 inherited for countless generations. We know very 

 well that this is not usually the case with ourselves ; 

 on the contrary, we require in most things the teach- 

 ing of experience, oftentimes repeated; and no two 

 people, under the same given circumstances, act pre- 

 cisely alike. There are, however, " instincts " that 



