No. 515] BEHAVIOR OF THE DOMESTIC FOWL G73 



liens feed from the tray, a few of them, as lias been re- 

 marked, stand back of the automatic feeder, i. e., between 

 it and the wall, a space of about ten and one-half inches. 

 In this position the feed tray is slightly more than breast 

 high (thirteen and one-half inches) at the top of the rim, 

 while slightly above the head of the birds (nineteen inches 

 from the floor and six inches from tray) runs a guide- 

 board, eleven by two and one-half inches. This board, 

 which really serves as a guide to the food falling from the 

 box into the feed-tray, is so hung that if it be struck from 

 behind outward the effect is the same as that of striking 

 the beam (a) at the point designated; that is, the grain is 

 let into the feed-tray. Striking the guide-board from 

 before does not accomplish this result. Now it appears 

 that several of the hens have learned the trick of oper- 

 ating the supply by striking from behind, with their 

 bills, the guide-board designated above. To accomplish 

 this the bird merely needs to raise its head from the tray 

 and to stretch its neck slightly in order to reach the board 

 which is sharply pecked. It appears, however, that the 

 hens do not attempt this manoeuvre so often as the cock- 

 erel performs the other. This is perhaps for two reasons : 

 first, the hens do not care so much for the grain ; and sec- 

 ondly, the cockerel is apparently always quite ready to 

 save the hens the trouble of working the feeder for them- 



How long was required for the hens to learn the trick 

 of operating the feeder is not known ; nor are any data at 

 hand regarding the proficiency shown at successive stages 

 in the process of learning. When the performance was 

 first observed by the writer the technique was already 

 perfected. It would be interesting to learn how, in the 

 experience of the cockerel, the connection was first made 

 between the movement of the beam and the presence of 

 fresh corn on the tray. The matter would be easier of 

 explanation were the action in question one which, on the 

 first performance, could easily have been accomplished by 

 chance, as, for instance, the case of the dog or cat acci- 



