The Instinctive Reactions of Young Chicks 161 
situation ‘‘sight of fellow chicks below ” by (after an amount 
of hesitation varying roughly with the height) jumping off, 
holding his stubby wings out and keeping right side up. He 
lands on his feet almost every time and generally very 
cleverly. A four days’ chick will jump down a distance 
eight times his own height without hurting himself a bit. If 
one takes a chick two or three weeks old who has never had 
a chance to jump up or down, and puts him in a box with 
walls three times the height of the chick’s back, he will 
find that the chick will jump, or rather fly, nearly, if not 
quite, over the wall, flapping his wings lustily and holding 
on to the edge with his neck while he clambers over. Chicks 
one day old will, in about 57 per cent of the cases, balance 
- themselves for five or six seconds when placed on a stiff 
perch. If eight or nine days old, they will, though never 
before on any perch or anything like one, balance perfectly 
fora minute or more. The muscular codrdination required 
is invoked immediately when the chick feels the situation 
“feet on a perch.” The strength is lacking in the first few 
days. From the fifth or sixth day on chicks are also able 
(their ability increases with age) to balance themselves on a 
slowly swinging perch. 
Another complex coérdination is seen in the somewhat re- 
\markable instinct of swimming. Chicks only a day or two 
‘old will, if tossed into a pond, head straight for the shore and 
swim rapidly to it. It is impossible to compare their move- 
ments in so doing with those of ducklings, for the chick is 
agitated, paddles his feet very fast and swims to get out, 
not for swimming’s sake. Dr. Bashford Dean, of Colum- 
bia University, has suggested to me that the movements 
may not be those of swimming, but only of running. At all 
events, they are utterly different from those of an adult fowl. 
In the case of the adult there is no vigorous instinct to strike 
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