INSTINCT 95 
of water might be indicated; the ducklings just know 
instinctively where water is to be found. A friend of mine 
once urged as a fact of which our boasted scientific theories 
of instinct give no explanation the circumstance that the 
burrowing mammals of California, before an unusually 
rainy season, would leave their holes near the gulches and 
migrate to the hillsides. Long before any indications were 
furnished to the weather bureau the instinct of these animals 
was said to warn them of the danger of floods. Some time 
previous to the conversation the mammals were said to 
have emigrated from the lower parts of the valleys, and 
therefore a rainy winter was predicted. It so turned out, 
however, that the season in question proved to be an unusu- 
ally dry one, and the wonderful instinct of the burrowing 
mammals gave them a false alarm. The migration of the 
mammals may or may not have taken place as reported, 
but the episode illustrates a very prevalent misconception of 
the nature and possibilities of instinct. Instincts frequently 
have a relation to future events, but that they involve a 
mysterious knowledge of things unpredictable by human 
reason still awaits proof. 
With all their wonderful adaptiveness instincts are far 
from ideally perfect. Much of Mark Twain’s remarks on 
the futility and imbecility, the wasted effort and labor at 
cross purposes shown in the behavior of ants may easily be 
verified by any observer. Flesh flies will deposit their 
eggs on the carrion plant (Stapelia hirsuta) whose odor 
resembles that of decaying meat on which the eggs are 
usually laid. The domestic hen will sometimes attempt to 
hatch out corn cobs or other inanimate objects, and her 
maternal instincts will lead her to foster ducklings as readily 
as her own kin. Sometimes animals devour their own 
eggs or young, as I have several times observed in cray- 
