396 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 



Can and do Birds Reason? Do Men also? (Zool. ante, p. 328). — 

 May I endeavour to reply shortly to the above question ? " Instinct " 

 — as a term— always seems to me to be a refuge of the destitute. 

 " Intelligence," I take it, is an active principle ; " influence." a passive 

 principle. "Instinct" and "inherent impulse" are vague and un- 

 explainable expressions. So is "prompting each individual" vague 

 and unsatisfying. But " environment " is the better expression. This 

 does away with another vague expression, viz. "chance." "Intelli- 

 gence " seems to me, if credited to birds, &c, to be a misnomer. How 

 would it do to say instead, " forcefulness from outside environments"? 

 In other words, " environing circumstances" to each and all. I take 

 it this is the true explanation of many natural-history phenomena. But 

 these environing circumstances vary in many and diffuse directions, and 

 therefore the results vary. So in nest-building; so inhabits; soinmigra- 

 tions and dispersals; so in the whole history of birds and. the whole 

 animal kingdom. The pressure of environing circumstances acts — acts. 

 It is not will-power in the bird or animal, but the direct action of the 

 surrounding circumstances, which may well include the example or tuition 

 of the parents, where that is exercised ; of foster-parents also. In how 

 far does heredity or transmitted brain-energy come in ? Perhaps the 

 most helpless of all infants is the human infant, and the helplessness 

 continues longer. That is probably because the human infant is of far 

 greater complex nature than any of the lower animals, and in con- 

 sequence knowledge takes long to develop. But even man is not proof 

 against environing circumstances. Possibly angels may be. Another 

 word often used is "intuition" (op. cit. p. 332). What dictionary 

 successfully defines it ? I do not mean defines it to our uses, but I 

 mean defines it correctly as a scientific expression. The writer I am 

 replying to, or trying to reply to, admits his belief in " the possession 

 of instinct by birds" (p. 332), and says, " We unanimously place (it) 

 to their credit." Do we? What is instinct? Instinct we cannot 

 scientifically define ; therefore, instinct is an unknown quantity. We 

 may accept the descriptive phrase — automaton — in lack of a better, 

 only, however, because of the similarities or the differences caused by 

 environment. — J. A. Harvie-Bkown (Dunipaee, Larbert, Stirling- 

 shire, N.B.). 



[We quite agree with Mr. Harvie-Brown on the extremely vague 

 conception appertaining to the term "instinct." It is perhaps most 

 clearly understood as a theological proposition, used by a school of 

 thought advocating an essential difference between man and other 



