JULY 4, 1903.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
i4 
sible that this species has been threatened with extinction, 
and, but for the new game laws recently passed, the ani- 
mals must soon have been exterminated. Even now the 
prospects for their preservation are not bright, since in 
winter they are slaughtered in great quantities by the 
natives, to whom they furnish the only fresh meat acces- 
sible, and who are as reckless in their destruction as all 
other untrained human beings commonly prove them- 
selves. 
Mr. Grant's excellent paper should be in the hands 
of every naturalist and big-game hunter. It is full of 
information and is a general rounding up of one of the 
most interesting groups of the deer. Whether agreeing 
or not with Mr. Grant's conclusions, no one can read the 
paper and see the illustrations without acquiring know- 
ledge. 
Instinct and Reason* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In Forest and Stream of June 6, 1903, Hermit says: 
*'I do not believe that the speech of the lower animals 
is inherited. It would be just as unreasonable as to 
claim that human speech is inherited." In another part 
of his communication he says: "The intelligence of the 
wild things is a fixed fact, and the sentiment is growing 
rapidly w:ith the intelligent public. . . . Instinct is 
no longer king of the wild things. He is deposed and 
must take his place with the commoners." I do not 
doubt that the "wild things" are endowed with a degree 
of intelligence, but I believe that a full and legitimate 
recognition of this fact will not "depose" instinct; and 
I would like to know what trustworthy evidence there 
is that any of the animals, other than man, possess a 
language, or speech, that can be taught, or that needs 
to be taught, in any proper sense of the world; or as 
a child is taught the language of its parents, for in- 
stance. I have never given any systematic study to 
the habits and capacities of animals, and make no pre- 
sciousness, of desire without consciousness of either 
cause or consequences. Action which is based on in- 
telligence or reason, is premeditated. Action which is 
based on instinct, is impulsive and without premedita- 
tion or consideration. It seems obvious to me that 
all creatures with the perceptive faculties of taste, 
touch, hearing, sight and smell, are endowed, more or 
less, with both intelligence and instinct. It is only in 
the lowest forms of animal life that we find no traces 
of intelligence. And it is only in man that we find 
instinct in subordination to intelligence. And it is to 
be noticed, in this connection, that man is the one 
creature intrusted with "dominion," and of whom the 
Creator requires a responsible service. The sea-urchin 
fulfills all the functions of its life by instinct alone. A 
bird, by instinct and intelligence in combination, with 
instinct as the controlling factor. In the case of man, 
so far fi-om instinct being a safe guide, a dependence 
on it will result in destruction; and his welfare consists 
- in carefully keeping it in subjection to intelligence. It 
would seem that nature intended instinct as a substitute 
for reason where reason is not available. In the case 
of the lower animals the endowment of reason is inade- 
quate and instinct is a safe primary dependence, In the 
case of man the endowment of reason is adequate, and 
instinct is utterly unsafe as a primary dependence. 
II.— Instruction Must be Based on Intelligence. 
Instruction consists in creating a consciousness of the 
relation between cause and effect, or of the relation be- 
tween thing and thing, in the mind of the pupil; or the 
creature that is being taught. Hence it is obvious that 
instruction must be based on intelligence, and not on 
' instinct. In teaching language, the word or sound, 
representing a thing, is associated with the thing for 
which it stands, in the mind of the instructor; and in- 
struction consists in creating that same image, or the 
same association of thing and sound, in the mind of the 
pupil. These considerations are necessary to a com- 
GRANT'S CARIBOU {RANGIFER GRANT/, ALLEN). 1 
Xiength, nose to ioot of-tail, 80 inches ; height at shoulder, 44 J4 inches. 
Courtesy of American Museum of Natural History, 
tension whatever to being a naturalist; but I' have Spent 
nearly all my life working on a farm, and, during fifty 
years of close contact with nature, I have seen what I 
have seen and heard what I have heard; and I am 
now ready to believe that it is quite possible for a 
professional naturalist to be very painstaking and 
precise in his investigations, and very fanciful and mis- 
leading in his deductions. Fables have their use, and 
I do not doubt that stories, in which human emotions 
.are attributed to the lower animals, may serve a good 
purpose. But they cannot serve a good purpose unless 
ithe reader knows enough of the matter to distinguish 
ibetween the facts and the fictions. Fiction, as an illus- 
.tration, or confirmation, of truth is all very well, but 
'.fiction as a substitute for truth generally begets an 
lenervating scntimentalism, and always obscures knowl- 
*edge. It may not seem of great importance whether the 
leasts and birds have languages or not, or whether they 
are dependent on reason or instinct; and, in itself, it 
is not a matter of great importance; but it is, neverthe- 
less, a very interesting subject, which has an indirect 
bearing- on human relationships which are important. 
I. — Reason and Instinct Distinguished. 
For our present purpose I thiiik reason or intelli- 
gence may be defined as a consciousness of the relation 
between cause and effect, or of the relation between 
thing and thing: and instinct as impulse or inclination 
to action without such consciousness. Instinct is con- 
preliensive discussion of the questions (i) Have the 
lower animals a language which is transmitted from 
generation to generation by instruction, and not by 
instinct? (2) Do the young of the lower animals need 
to be taught by their elders to eat, and, in the case of 
birds, to build their nests, to fly, and to sing? 
m. — Have Each of the Species of Beasts and Birds a Lan- 
guage which is 1 raosmitted by lastruction 
and not by Instinct? 
It cannot be doubted that the lower animals have the 
means of communicating a few crude ideas. But I 
have never seen convincing evidence that they possess 
a definitely constructed language such as would be nec- 
essary if it is transmitted by instruction. Uridoubtedly 
the emotions of anger and love, and the emotions en- 
gendered by danger, the discovery of food, etc., each 
has its distinctive outcry, or modulation of the voice. 
But this seems to be merely an instinctive and peculiar 
exercise of the vocal organs called forth by the occa- 
sion, or the situation, and which is hereditary in the spe- 
cies. Even men do not talk love in the same tone of voice 
that they express anger. No one needs to take note of his 
words to tell that a man is furious. And the dulcet 
tones of a lover's voice are as expressive as his articu- 
lations. And why should not the beasts and the birds 
express the very few definite ideas that are essential 
to their simple existence by a few instinctive and 
hereditary outcries? It seems altogether unreasonable 
to force fiction into the lap of truth, for the purpose of 
giving the beasts and birds an intelligently constructed 
language, without having first made sure that they have 
need for such a language. 
If a hawk flies over a farmyard, the outcry of the 
old fowls will cause chickens and turkeys, not a day 
old, to squat, and to try to hide. They evidently under- 
stand the language, but under the circuin stances it 
seems absurd to suppose that they understand it by 
instruction. It is obviously impossible for the parent 
to create the necessary association of thing and sound, 
in the consciousness of the young bird, until after it 
has perceived, or known of, the thing which the sound 
represents. But here the young bird associates the 
thing (danger) with the sound before it has had any 
perception or knowledge of the thing. Hence it is 
evident that the young bird is conscious of the connec- 
tion between sound and thing by instinct, and not by 
nistruction. . ■ ; 
A farmer turns his herd of cows out to pasture, of 
a morning, and perhaps shortly afterward one of them 
will have a calf, Avithout his knowing of it. After a 
time the calf, having filled itself with milk, will lie 
down, and the cow will go to eating grass with the rest 
of the herd. When the calf gets hungry it will get up 
and bawl. Its mother will answer it with a half sup- 
pressed low, and go to it in a leisurely, unconcerned 
way, to which the other cattle pay no attention whatever. 
Some time afterward, during the day, a man will be 
crossing the field and tumble over a young calf lying' 
concealed in a bunch of weeds. The frightened little 
creature will scramble to its feet and let out a bawl 
that will set every cow and bull in the field on the war 
path in an instant. The newly born calf is endowed 
with a language which is well understood by its species. 
The circumstances of the case make it impossible to 
entertain for a moment the idea that it has received a 
knowledge of that language by instruction. 
IV.— Do the Beasts and Birds Need to Teach Their Young 
to Eat? 
The question is not, whether they do assist their 
young to eat in some cases, but whether they need to 
teach them in all cases, as Hermit, if I understand his 
statement, says that they do. Of course no one con- 
tends that instinct can perform impossibilities, and the 
young bird that cannot move from the nest must have 
food brought to it, and the kitten that can neither see \ 
nor walk must be cared for by the parent. But in 
neither of these cases is there any instruction in the art 
of eating. What is it that causes the young bird to 
stretch up its neck and open its mouth to receive the 
food, but instinct alone? If instinct did not c^us& t\\t 
newly hatched birds to do this I opine the old ones 
would be in a sad quandary. As a rule, the young of 
beasts receive no help from their mothers in getting 
their first drink of milk. They only need to have the 
milk, or, rather, the udder, where they can get at it, and 
instinct will do the rest. In fact, they are not infre- 
quently repulsed by their dams. A cow with a painful 
udder will sometimes fondle her calf in the most moth- 
erly way, but refuse to let it get a drop of milk. In re- 
spect to getting the milk, all that a healthy calf asks 
of its mother is to stand still. Occasionally a young 
ewe will refuse to recognize her new born lamb, and 
the little fellow will be found persistently trying to get 
to the milk, and slie as persistently butting him away. 
Hold her still and the lamb will soon be sucking with- 
out the least instruction. Young pigs, that have just 
come into daylight, will follow each other around to 
their mother's teats as knowingly as if they were used 
to it. It may be said that the grunt of the sow at- 
tracts them, but they stop at the teats without going 
so far as the grunt. And, moreover, at this stage of 
their existence, how do they know that their mother's 
grunt means more than any other noise except by in- 
stinct, pure and simple? It is quite possible that newly 
hatched chickens would not find enough food to keep 
them alive if left in a farmyard entirely to themselves. 
Perhaps they would not find any suitable food at all. 
But place suitable food where they can easily get at i;t 
and they will soon fill tlieir little craws without tlT,e 
least instruction. That the hen finds food for them 
by searching- and scratching is undoubtedly true; but 
she does not have to instruct them how to eat it; nor 
do the chicks restrict themselves to what she finds 
and gives them. Incubators now turn out thousands of 
cJiickens that grow to maturity without ever hearing 
the motherly cluck of a hen. Young chickens eat ^nd 
scratch, and young ducks take to the water as naturally 
as smoke flies upward. 
v.— Do Young Birds Need to be Taught to Fly, to Sing, 
and to Build Their Nests? 
Would instinct alone impel young birds to fly? is the 
question. There is no doubt that the parent birds urge 
the young ones to fly; but the action of the old birds 
seems to be not instruction, but encouragement. The 
instinctive 'desire of the young birds to fly is, as yet, 
overbalanced by the instinctive fear of getting hurt, 
and the old birds give a preponderance to the desire to 
ily by mitigating the fear of getting hurt. This is not 
instruction m any legitmate sense of the term. Both 
old birds and young fly by instinct alone. They simply 
fly, and that is all there is of it, so far as their intellects 
are concerned, When I was a child some one gave me 
a squab pigeon, which was nearly ready to fly, I kept 
it in a coop, frequently taking it out and letting it 
walk around where I happened to be. After some time 
it conimenced to take short flights, gradually increasing 
the distance. It came back at frequent intervals for 
several days, and then flew away, and I saw no more of 
it. No other pigeon was with it after I had it up to 
the time it commenced to fly. It had no instruction 
and did not need any. 
In regard to singing, birds are imitative creatures up 
to the hmit of their intelligence, and it is not improb- 
able that the example of their elders may hasten the 
performance of the young ones. But I am convinced 
that the idea that the young ones would not sing with- 
out the example of the others, is based on theory rather 
than knowledge. If the birds learn to sing alto^-ether 
