FACTORS IN ANIMAL LIFE 
seem to show at times a kind of altruistic feeling. A 
correspondent writes me that she possessed a canary 
which lived to so great an age that it finally became 
so feeble it could not crack the seeds she gave it, 
when the other birds, its own progeny, it is true, fed 
it; and Darwin cites cases of blind birds, in a state of 
nature, being fed by their fellows. Probably it would 
be hasty to conclude that such acts show anything 
more than instinct. I should be slow to ascribe to the 
animals any notion of the uses of punishment as we 
practice it, though the cat will box her kittens when 
they play too long with her tail, and the mother hen 
will separate her chickens when they get into a fight, 
and sometimes peck one or both of them on the head, 
as much as to say, “There, don’t you do that again.” 
The rooster will in the same way separate two hens 
when they are fighting. On the surface this seems 
like a very human act, but can we say that it is pun- 
ishment or discipline in the human sense, as having 
for its aim a betterment of the manners of the kit- 
tens or of the chickens? The cat aims to get rid of 
an annoyance, and the rooster and the mother hen 
interfere to prevent an injury to members of their 
family; they exhibit the paternal and maternal in- 
stinct of protection. More than that would imply 
ethical considerations, of which the lower animals are 
not capable. The act of the baboon, mentioned by 
Darwin, I believe, that examined the paws of the cat 
that had scratched it, and then deliberately bit off 
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