86 INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOUR 
the two. In any case, the hand over hand action is well 
co-ordinated, and is very different from a mere excited struggle. 
Chicks twenty-six hours old taken straight from the incubator 
drawer, before they had taken food, made directly for the side 
of the tank and tried to scramble out. They gradually sank 
deeper through the wetting of the down, but could keep afloat 
for from two to three minutes. I have made observations on 
chicks of various ages from twenty-four hours to a month, and 
find in all cases similar results ; but with the older birds the 
flapping of the wings and more vigorous action cause them to 
get water-logged more rapidly. There issome apparent distress 
with cries ; but less than one might expect under the circum- 
stances. For the purposes of the above illustration Mr. 
Charles Whymper had before him a sketch I made of the 
leg-action, and instantaneous photographs of the chicks 
swimming for which I am indebted to my colleague Mr. 
George Brebner. I have not observed the behaviour of an 
adult hen when placed in the water. Dr. Thorndike says, 
“there is no vigorous instinct to strike out toward the 
shore,” she “will float about aimlessly for awhile and only 
very slowly reach the shore.” But Mrs. Foster Wood informs 
me that she has seen a hen leap into a pond after her brood of 
ducklings and swim to the other side, a distance of twenty 
feet. 
Diving, in water-birds, is also an instinctive mode of 
behaviour; and this is obviously a more difficult procedure 
than swimming, one further removed from reflex action. 
And careful observations have placed beyond question the fact 
that flight is also instinctive. A swallow, for example, taken 
from the nest under conditions which made it practically 
certain that it had never yet taken wing, exhibited guided 
flight, and attempted to alight on a suitable ledge. Of course 
flight is generally a deferred instinct, and is not performed 
until the wings have reached a suitable state of development. 
An instinctive response, which may perhaps be regarded as 
one of its initial stages, is seen in quite young chicks. If 
placed in a basket, and rapidly lowered therein through a foot 
