WHAT DO ANIMALS KNOW? 
seem incredible. He might easily drop a clam by 
accident, and then, finding the shell broken, repeat 
the experiment. He is still only taking the first step 
in the sequence of causations. 
A recent English nature-writer, on the whole, I 
think, a good observer and truthful reporter, Mr. 
Richard Kearton, tells of an osprey that did this 
incredible thing: to prevent its eggs from being 
harmed by an enforced exposure to the sun, the bird 
plunged into the lake, then rose, and shook its drip- 
ping plumage over the nest. The writer apparently 
reports this story at second-hand. It is incredible 
to me, because it implies a knowledge that the hawk 
could not possibly possess. 
Such an emergency could hardly arise once in a 
lifetime to it or its forbears. Hence the act could not 
have been the result of inherited habit, or instinct, 
and as an original act on the part of the osprey it is 
not credible. The bird probably plunged into the 
lake for a fish, and then by accident shook itself 
above the eggs. In any case, the amount of water 
that would fall upon the eggs under such circum- 
stances would be too slight to temper appreciably 
the heat. 
There is little doubt that among certain of our 
common birds the male, during periods of excessive 
heat, has been known to shade the female with his 
outstretched wings, and the mother bird to shade 
her young in the same way. But this is a different 
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