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I suppose that was in intellectual contemplation. (Laughter.) 
“This pause was sometimes followed by changing the position of the 
materials, and sometimes it was left in its place. After he had piled up 
his material in one part of the room, for he generally chose the same place, 
he proceeded to wall up the space between the feet of a chest of drawers, 
which stood at a little distance from it, high enough on its legs to make the 
bottom a roof for him, using for this purpose dried turf and sticks, which he 
laid very even, and filling up the interstices with bits of coal, hay, cloth, or 
anything he could pick up. This last place he seemed to appropriate for his 
dwelling ; the former work seemed intended for a dam. When he had walled 
up the space between the feet of the chest of drawers, he proceeded to carry 
in sticks, clothes, hay, cotton, &c., and to make a nest; and when he had done 
he would sit up under the drawers and comb himself with his hind feet.” 
Here is a clear and unmistakable instance of blind instinct, and I have 
no hesitation in saying that any of these facts, any of the cases mentioned by 
Mr. Row for instance, can be explained on the principle stated in the paper. 
Animals, I believe, have an utter incapacity for reasoning. To a certain 
extent animals may be taught certain things, but the moment you change 
the circumstances under which they have been instructed they fail utterly 
to make any allowance for that change of circumstances. To take another 
example, the author of this book, after speaking of rabbits and foxes, says, — 
“ Yet it is evident they do not know the character of the work they are 
engaged in, for experience could not have taught them. The butterfly or 
moth which deposits its eggs in the exact spot where the future grub will 
find its most suitable nourishment cannot know that it will be found when 
they want it, where most frequently it does not exist at the time the germ is 
laid there ; for the flesh-fly, deceived by its sense of smelling, will lay its 
eggs in the petals of the carrion flower, whose odour so closely resembles 
that of tainted meat.” 
Here again is a total absence of reason. It is a case of mere instinct. 
The smell leads the insect to deposit its eggs in a certain place utterly unfit 
to receive them, and those eggs are therefore laid in a place completely 
unsuited to the purpose in view. Then, speaking of hens, the author goes 
on to say, — 
“ And yet are they endowed by instinct with some impression which 
teaches them to provide for the natural result ; for a young hen of mine 
which made her first nest, a stray one, under a heap of coals, when the eggs 
were discovered and taken away during her absence, after she had sat upon 
them for a day or two, wandered about the coals calling the chickens.” 
Here again we have a specimen of defective observation and reasoning. 
The hen calls her chickens when there are really no chickens to call. The 
author continues, — 
“ Our domestic poultry, indeed, long as they have been under the tuition 
of man, will, to a close observer, exhibit, especially in early life, the stub- 
bornness of natural instinct. Accustomed in their wild state to roost upon 
the branches of trees, they usually seek the highest roosting-place they can 
attain, even though a much more comfortable spot is provided for them 
below.” 
And the author mentions a case in which great care was taken' to accom- 
modate the chickens, but all to no purpose. A warm nest was provided for 
