NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
97 
Municipal Affairs, No. I2, December, 1899. New York. Price 25 cents. 
It is a very hopeful sign when America, which we generally think of as 
entirely given over to utilitarianism, starts and supports a quarterly magazine 
mainly devoted to the endeavour to foster the ideal of the beautiful in connection 
with the development of towns. We commend “ Municipal Affairs ” to all town 
and county councillors. 
Received : — The Victorian Naturalist for February, The Irish Naturalist, 
Knoiuledge, Science Gossip, Animal World. Animals Friend, Our Animal 
Friends, Humanity and Agricultural Economist for April. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Long- tailed Field Mice. — A few days ago I turned one of these mice 
loose before my cat, which clears the house of the common mouse, but she would 
not touch it. People here have a like experience. My garden is overrun by 
cats, and long-tailed mice abound to such an extent as to do much damage. The 
cottagers checkmate them by chopping up some gorse and putting it in a row in 
the ground. In this they plant their peas. The prickles baffle the mice ; but 
the best way to keep them in order is to encourage kestrels and owls. 
Market Weston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Instinct of Wild Rabbits. — It is not every reader of Nature Notes, 
probably, who understands that ordinary wild rabbits cover up their nests most 
carefully at the entrance of their holes with the earth they usually scratch out, 
to the extent of about a yard, before kindling. They use these shallow holes 
often several times in the season. Last summer, one had three litters of young, 
one after the other, in my orchard. At the present time, from where I write 
these lines, a nest is situate about thirty yards away, where I frequently see the 
mother mornings and evenings, and a few mornings since I saw her carefully 
filling up the entrance by placing herself so as to press down the soil with her 
body while industriously scratching the earth to block up the entrance for the 
protection of her young. 
Astmood Bank. James Hi am. 
Instinct in Birds. — It is pleasant to feel that any remarks of mine should 
have been the cause of bringing Mr. Degen’s interesting observations before our 
notice. 
It is always difficult to decide which acts in beasts and birds are due to 
instinct or individual experience, and consequent acts of intelligence. The case 
I gave of the canary showing alarm at the sight of a hawk seems to be one of 
instinct. 
The blue-birds having had, I presume, some experience of wild life eleven 
years ago, may have seen the ravages caused by birds of prey amongst their 
feathered brethren. In “Comparative Psychology,” by C. Lloyd Morgan, I 
lately came across the following passages : “In a very interesting chapter on 
‘ Fear in Birds,’ Mr. W. H. Hudson, in his work on ‘ The Naturalist in 
La Plata,’ describes many observations which point to the conclusion that the 
fear of man and other enemies is very largely due to parental instruction or 
individual experience.” Again : “ Fixing our attention on the relation of instinct 
to intelligence, we may say that animals and men alike come into the world with 
an innate capacity for active response to certain stimuli. This is part of their 
organic inheritance. The response may be from the first an accurate and adequate 
response; in such cases we term it instinct. More frequently the responses have 
a variable amount of inaccuracy and inadequacy ; in such cases the animal, as a 
matter of observed fact, has a power of selective control over the responses ; this 
power of selective control over the activities which are essential to daily life is 
the first stage of intelligence. And whereas for the instinctive action, as such, 
consciousness is only an epiphenomenon, or adjunct accompanying the perform- 
ance of the action, for its intelligent guidance consciousness is essential.” 
Glenthorne, Eastbourne. Ethei, G. Woodd. 
