CHAPTER XXTX 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FOWL 
O low in the scale of creation is the fow] that its brain 
S material is necessarily of a rudimentary order. The bird 
is only one degree removed almost in a direct line from the 
reptile. With a small brain, and that not of the best material, 
a domestic fowl is not a particularly intelligent bird. That may 
be taken for granted. I have heard it asserted, not without 
reason, that the fowl, of all animals, is the most stupid. This 
sweeping assertion has usually been made when the bird, by some 
silly manceuvre, has exasperated its owner. That fowls are stupid 
it would be folly to deny. Whether they are as bereft of brain as 
the hare or the sheep is a question that admits of discussion. We 
are so little acquainted with the psychology of the hare—being a 
wild animal and not under observation—that it is impossible to 
pronounce a judgment. Instinct is so powerful, so all-dominating 
in the sheep that there is very little room for what we call in- 
telligence. Even the bee seems to belong to a vastly higher order, 
though there, too, it may be instinct and not direct exercise of 
intelligence that makes the bee appear to be among the thinking 
animals, 
No doubt the lower animals, as distinct from the human animal, 
are largely dominated by instinct rather than by reason, and the 
angler who tells you tales of the artful ways of the fish is uncon- 
sciously endowing the fish with a reasoning capacity that belongs 
strictly to instinct, developed through countless ages to avoid 
its enemies, in the struggle for existence. Reasoning powers, as 
we understand the term, can be admitted to be in the possession of 
only a few of the higher mammals, such as the ape, the elephant, 
the horse and the dog. 
No biped other than man is capable of thinking out a problem 
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