116 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



BIOLOGICAL SUGGESTIONS. 



MIMICRY. 



By W. L. Distant. 



(Concluded from vol. iii. p. 553.) 



Active mimicry naturally predicates intelligence, and is not 

 equivalent to what is generally described as instinct,* so univer- 

 sally applied to any other animal than man. Prof. Lloyd Morgan 

 remarks on the many who believe that instinct is neither more 

 nor less than inherited habit, but concludes that, " while still 

 believing that there is some connection between habit and 

 instinct, admit that the connection is indirect and permissive 

 rather than direct and transmissive." t Every attempt is made 

 to minimise this faculty. In birds, Mr. Orr has warned us not 

 to overrate the intelligence implied by nest-building " of an 

 animal which has not sufficient intelligence to loosen a slip-knot 

 tied around its leg." I But man himself has very slowly and 

 laboriously acquired — and has not yet altogether the desire to 

 possess — the intelligence to loosen the artificial slip-knots that 

 bind him to many errors and much superstition. If, however, 

 some would minimise animal intelligence, there are others who 

 maintain the purposive acts of plants. Thus Mr. Grant Allen, 

 in describing the wonderful life-history of the common gorse, and 

 allowing that " the intelligence is here no doubt unconscious 

 and inherited," still remarks : " Gorse, in short, may fairly be 

 called a clever and successful plant, just as the Bee may be 

 called a clever and successful insect, because it works out its 

 own way through life with such conspicuous wisdom." § The 



* The true teleological definition of the term was denned by Paley: 

 " An instinct is a propensity, prior to experience, and independent of in- 

 struction " (' Natural Theology '). 



f * Habit and Instinct,' p. 322. 



| ' A Theory of Development and Heredity,' p, 19. 



§ 'Flashlights on Nature,' pp. 282-3. 



