Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/138

132 We can not accept the conclusion of the writer quoted above, that "fear for particular things remains in the main instinctive." Fear and association, as we have seen, are without doubt developed, like all else, by a gradual process, however abrupt certain reactions of fear may appear. The normal and usual reactions of daily life seem to go through a sifting process; the usual pass readily through the sieve of experience and are stamped as harmless by association, provided they are really harmless, or at least not disagreeable. Further, there seems to be left a residue of strange or unusual sights, sounds or tactual stimuli, ready to produce the fear manifestation, at a moment's call, when this particular stage in the developing instinct has been reached. The reaction is instinctive, but in no true sense would it seem to be the inherited fear of any particular object or thing. Fear of objects having particular, inherent qualities, which are harmful or unpleasant can come only from experience of their harmful or disagreeable effects.

Habits of Young Kingfishers.—In my work on "The Home Life of Wild Birds," I have described some curious habits which kingfishers show when taken from their underground nest at an early age, especially the habit of sitting still, and of walking backwards. The earlier observations were made over ten years ago, and thinking that some other questions might be involved, such as the rising instinct of fear, experiments were repeated on another family of these birds in the summer of 1908. When dug out of the ground on July 8, the five young in this case were found lying twenty-eight inches below the surface, at the end of a six-foot tunnel; they were in "pin-feathers," and according to my estimate about eight days old. Experiments were made on the ninth, fourteenth, twentieth and twenty-third days, when the young were at an age approximately corresponding to the date, with the following results; fear did not seem to play any part as a disturbing or inhibitory factor in their behavior during the first two days; they would go forward or backward, rather indiscriminately, whatever their position might be with reference to the observer, and whatever the nature of the surface upon which they were placed. On subsequent days, the tendency to walk backward increased, and though fear was rising, they were readily quieted, and when placed in certain positions they would sit quiet for long intervals.

The following notes were made on the behavior of these kingfishers on the last day of observation, July 23; when placed on the pine carpet, all began to make off with fluttering wings, going forward with crests erect and rattles sounding. When recovered and placed in line, they soon quieted, and the backward walking movements began (see Figs. 31 and 32). All showed the same tendency, and one, in which it was especially marked, would retreat four feet before the camera could be focused, and this was repeated for the twentieth time. The same