272 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 
even in the ease of barren birds, I may quote the follow- 
ing from the naturalist Couch. I do so because, although 
the instance is a trivial one, and also one of frequent 
occurrence, it is interesting as showing that a deeply rooted 
instinct or emotion may assert itself powerfully even in 
the absence of what may be termed its natural stimulus or 
object : — 
I was once witness to a curious instance of the yearning 
for progeny in a diminutive bantam hen. 
There was at this time a nest of the common hen in a se* 
eluded part of the garden, and the parent had been sitting on its 
eggs, till compelled by hunger she left them for a short time. 
This absence was fatal ; for the bantam had in the meantime 
found its situation in a covered recess in the hedge, and I saw 
her creep into it with all the triumph of the discoverer of a 
treasure. The real mother now returned, and great was her 
agony at finding an intruder in her nest. The expression of her 
eye and the attitude of her head were emphatic of surprise at 
the impudence of the proceeding. But after many attempts to 
recover possession she was compelled to resign her rights, for 
the bantam was too resolute to be contended with ; and though 
its body was not big enough to cover the whole of the eggs, and 
thus some of them were not hatched, yet in due season the pride 
of this audacious step-mother was gratified by strutting at the 
head of a company of robust chickens, which she passed off upon 
the feathered public as a brood of her own. 1 
As evidence of sympathy I shall quote in extenso an 
interesting case which has been communicated to me by a 
young lady, who desires her name withheld. There are 
several more or less corroborative cases in the anecdote- 
books , 2 so that I have no doubt as to the substantial ac- 
curacy of the account : — 
My grandfather had a Swan Biver gander, which had been 
reared near the house, and had consequently attached himself t3 
the members of the family * so much so that, on seeing any of 
them at a distance, he would run to meet them with all possible 
demonstrations of delight. 
But 4 Swanny ’ was quite an outcast from his own tribe ; 
and as often as he made humble overtures to the other geese, so 
1 Couch, Illustrations of Instinct, p. 232. 
2 See especially Bingley, Animal Biography , vol. ii., pp. 327-29. 
