Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 292, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1913 — INSTIHCT ONLYGUIDE [ARTICLE]

INSTIHCT ONLYGUIDE

Birds and Insects That Occasionally Make Blunders. Feathered Creatures Accused of “Unwisdom” in the Selection of Sites for Nests—Ant Is Not Always Wise. London.—The wisdom of the “little people” is a subject of never failing charm to those who love them, and it is with a certain degree of hesitation that I draw your attention to one or two curious instances of what may be termed “unwisdom," says a writer in the London Weekly Telegraph. They are worth studying, because they throw some light on the vexed question of instinct versus reason. No subject is better worth attention, none more frequently misunderstood, for many an action which we carelessly assign to intelligence is really the result of instinct. A bird does not learn to build a nest nor does TtTeason oubthe best way of setting to work. It simbly follows its Instinct and acts as countless generations of its kind have done in the past. Remember such a bpsy worker cannot be said to be fallowing the example of its parents since it never saw them at work. Even better instances of this may be found among the teeming members of the insect worlft, for they are usually orphaned at the time of their birth, yet they contrive to carry out the most complicated work with no one to guide them, and no pattern before them. Wisdom, then, is clearly a word which must not be too lightly used, and, perhaps, I ought not to accuse the little workers of lack of it, but rather of occasional blunders. Exact terms are always dangerous things to deal with, for they tempt one to wander into the maze of definition, and once there it is difficult to get away again. The man who knows more of the ways of spiders than, perhaps, any one else in the world —of course, I mean M. Faber—for a long time studied the habits of that maternal spider which carries a sort of egg basket about with her, instead of depositing her eggs in a suitable spot and leaving them alone. The spider in question has come in for much praise, the tender solicitude she betrays for her future brood being beautiful. Alas, when she is made the victim of a sort of practical joke, and has a little round of cork given her Instead of her precious treasure, she carries. it just as carefully, and never finds out the difference.

Ants, In spite of their vaunted “wisdom,” may be tricked in much the same way, being made to carry such lumber as beads under the impression that they are harvesting. Their mistake, however, is not as sad in its results as that of the fly, which lays Its eggs on the evil smelling carrion plant under the Impression that it has found a particularly putrid, and therefore desirable, piece of meat. Birds occasionally, though only occasionally, make sad blunders in their choice of a nesting site, some of the water fowl laying in a spot which is pretty sure to be under water before the eggs are hatched. Again, in some instances, two cuckoo eggs have been discovered In the same nest, and the bird has been blamed for making such a mistake as to Imagine that two children of hers could possibly occupy such cramped quarters. I am not satisfied that this criticism is fair, because it Is possible that‘the eggs are those of two rivals, though even then It might be argued that the second bird ought to know better than to choose a nest already engaged. That she should fail to do so is, perhaps, yet another example of this most unmotherly bird’s brutal indifference to her offspring’s future. She really is shocking. But, perhaps, the strangest blunder of all is that made by the lemming, which marches in its thousands down to the sea, and, to all intents and purposes, commits the crime of felo-de-se. If he really means to end his days then we cannot fairly describe the action as a blunder. The general opinion is, however, that the deed is the result of a mistake—surely the most gigantic ever made. The lemming, however, is too interesting a creature to be dismissed lightly. He must have a paragraph to himself some day. He is the strangest and most persistent suicide ever died.