Instinct — its meaning. ijj 



creatures ; and I should be exceedingly glad to know 

 from him, if under this he includes the throwing out 

 of the proper nestlings by the young cuckoos or 

 excepts it, placing it among efforts of intelligence ; 

 and, after he has given his answer definite and clear I 

 shall, perhaps, have a further question or two to put 

 to him, if he will kindly allow me. 



We are, meanwhile, in absolute agreement with 

 Professor St. Geoirge Mivart, who writes in his essay 

 on instinct : 



" It is plain that actions may be instinctive in one 

 animal and not in another, or at one period of lite in 

 the same animal and not at another." 



And we agree with him that the pretending to be 

 hurt, and fluttering about as though helpless and 

 even feigning death on the part of many birds and 

 insects, cannot be explained satisfactorily either on 

 the ground of instinct or of inherited habit any more 

 than certain purposive actions in insect-neuters that 

 do not propagate can be fairly so explained. 



Instinct, as used to cover or to account for certain 

 changes and adaptations in the lower creatures, is 

 utterly inept and, what is worse, directly misleading. 

 Take, for example, the case of the baya bird of India 

 which hangs its pendulous dwelling from a projecting 

 bough, twisting it with grass into a form somewhat 

 resembling a bottle with a prolonged neck, the en- 

 trance being inverted so as to baffle the approaches 

 of its enemies, the tree-snakes and other reptiles ; 

 and, yet more than that, in view of other enemies, 

 inserts fire-flies in the clay about it to warn them off. 

 Or, further and more striking still, the case of some 

 of the South African weaver-birds, the taha, and 



