INSTINCTS AND HABITS IN CHICKS 3 



following report of the reactions of one of his animals : ' 'At the 

 first attempt it touched a grain with as much certainty as if it 

 had pecked at millet for ever so long. But it did not succeed in 

 taking up the grain in its beak. A second attempt immediately 

 afterwards likewise failed, but at the third, which succeeded 

 without a pause, the grain was grasped and swallowed, and now 

 the little creature went on feeding as though it had done so for 

 years!" (Italics mine.) 



Mills ' thinks that some of Spalding's statements exaggerate. 

 " Instinct is not the hard and fast thing it is sometimes sup- 

 posed to be." On the basis of his own experiments he con- 

 cludes : " Thus one (chick) may strike a crumb accurately every time 

 it pecks, and pick it up on the first attempt; another misses, 

 or shows great difficulty in getting it into the mouth." (Italics 

 mine.) 



Morgan ^ concludes that the complicated process of striking, 

 seizing, and swallowing " is performed so soon, and with so 

 few trials — often at the third or fourth attempt — that one must 

 regard the whole as essentially congenital in its definiteness, and 

 look upon the few preparatory efforts as merely the steadying 

 of the inherited organic apparatus to its work." (Italics mine.) 

 By congenital response is meant one that is not the result of 

 acquired skill. 



Writing earlier on the same topic, Morgan ' had said the 

 chicks " required a little intelligence, acting by and through 

 experience, to perfect their (instinctive) activities. The in- 

 stincts were very nearly, but not quite, perfect." 



Thomdike* criticises Morgan's conclusions on the improve- 

 ment in accuracy of the pecking reaction. " Lloyd Morgan, 

 for instance, has chosen a dubious example of perfecting through 

 habit in the seizing of bits of food by chicks. They often do 

 fail to seize in their first experiences, as he observed, but they 

 often, perhaps just as often, fail even after long experience." 

 (Italics mine.) 



Finally, a further matter, aside from the question of the 



- ' Mills, W. : The psychic development of young animals and its physical correla- 

 tion. Trans. R. S. Can., Sec. IV, 1895; or, The nature and development of animal 

 ' intelligence, New York, 1898, p. 262. 



'Morgan, C. L. : Habit and instinct. London and New York, 1896, p. 37. 

 ' 'Morgan, C.L.: Introduction to comparative psychology. London, 1894, p. 207. 

 *Thorndike, E. L. : The instinctive reaction of young chicks. Psych. Rev., 

 VI, 1899, p. 282. Also, Instinct. Biol. Lectures, Woods Hole, 1899, p. 61. 



