FACTORS IN ANIMAL LIFE 
Not until he has learned to resign himself to the 
water as the animal does, and to go on all fours, 
can he swim. As soon as the boy ceases to struggle 
against his tendency to sink, assumes the horizontal 
position, and strikes out as the animal does, with but 
one thought, and that to apply his powers of locomo- 
tion to the medium about him, he swims as a matter 
of course. It is said that children have sometimes 
been known to swim when thrown into the water. 
Their animal instincts were not thwarted by their 
powers of reflection. Doubtless this never happened 
toa grown person. Moreover, is it not probable that 
the specific gravity of the hairless human body 
is greater than that of the hair-covered animal, and 
that it sinks, while that of the cat or dog floats? 
This, with the erect position of man, makes swim- 
ming with him an art that must be acquired. 
There is no better illustration of the action of 
instinct as opposed to conscious intelligence than 
is afforded by the parasitic birds, —the cuckoo in 
Europe and the cowbird in this country, — birds that 
lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Darwin 
speculates as to how this instinct came about, but 
whatever may have been its genesis, it is now a fixed 
habit among these birds. Moreover, the instinct of 
the blind young alien, a day or two after it is hatched, 
to throw or crowd its foster-brothers out of the nest 
is a strange and anomalous act, and is as untaught 
and unreasoned as anything in vegetable life. But 
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