A BEAVER’S REASON 
Is instinct resourceful? Can it meet new condi- 
tions? Can it solve a new problem? If so, how 
does it differ from free intelligence or judgment? I 
am inclined to think that up to a certain point in- 
stinct is resourceful. Thus a Western correspondent 
writes: “At three different times I have pursued 
the common jack-rabbit from a level field, when the 
rabbit, coming to a furrow that ran at right angles 
to his course, jumped into it, and crouching down, 
slowly crept away to the end of the furrow, when it 
jumped out and ran at full speed again.” This is 
a good example of the resourcefulness of instinct 
— the instinct to escape from an enemy — an old 
problem met by taking advantage of an unusual 
opportunity. To run, to double, to crouch, to hide, 
are probably all reflex acts with certain animals 
when hunted. The bird when pursued by a hawk 
rushes to cover in a tree or a bush, or beneath some 
object. Last summer I saw a bald eagle pursuing 
a fish hawk that held a fish in its talons. The 
hawk had a long start of the eagle, and began 
mounting upward, screaming in protest or defiance 
as it mounted. The pirate circled far beneath it 
for a few minutes, and then, seeing how he was 
distanced, turned back toward the ocean, so that 
I did not witness the little drama in the air that I 
had so long wished to see. 
A wounded wild duck suddenly develops much 
cunning in escaping from the gunner — swimming 
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