Some Problems of Bird Life
On Wednesday Feb (blank), Mr. S. E. Evans read a paper on
“Some Problems of Bird Life”
In the first part of his paper he discussed the question of Instinct vs. Reason, & pointed out that much of the controversy which had raged about this problem, was due to a want of definiteness in the meaning of the words employed. The old idea was to draw a sharp distinction between the instinctive actions of animals & the intelligent actions of men. In other words, instinctive actions were performed without consciousness & could hardly by distinguished from reflex actions.
It was obvious to anyone who had studied the habit of birds that this was by no means a satisfactory account of many of the actions of birds. If they were to be called instinctive we must admit an element of consciousness if not of intelligence into the meaning of the word Instinct.
It was hard to believe that a plover was not consciously trying to deceive us, when we saw her performing acrobatic feats in her attempts to head us from the vicinity of her nest. The reader then discussed various definitions of the word instinct & considered then that of E… was the most satisfactory, for while defining instinct as an inherited power, it also empieosley recognised in it an element of intelligence.
Mr. Herbert Spencer defined instinct as “Inherited Memory” & this definition threw much light on some of the problems of migration.
After giving several well authenticated story’s of bird intelligence, Mr. Evans proceeded to deal with the phenomena of Migration. After pointing out that Bird Migration was known to the ancients, he traced the origin of the habit back to prehistoric times when the great change which took place in the configuration of the earth’s surface were necessarily responsible for changes in the distribution of birds & animals. For as suitable poor ….. the different species of birds would be compelled to leave their old homes. That the Migrating instinct was hereditary there was much evidence to prove, & perhaps the strongest evidence was to be found in the tenacity with which certain species cling to old migration routes. These routes were naturally largely determined by the physical features of the countries through which they passed. Thus long coastlines, running N to S were commonly used, while river basins offered special advantages for birds entering or leaving a country. It was found that in some cases the sea-route followed by migrating birds were along submerged coastlines, thus the route followed by the Greyplover & the Knot from Spurn Point in Yorkshire to Denmark was an ancient coastline.
After describing the various classes of migrants which visit this country, the reader brough his paper to a conclusion by suggesting one of two problems for discussion.e.g.
- What part does instinct play in the marvellous power of flying hundreds of miles year after year to the same spot?
- To what extent have birds a memory for landmarks?
- How far are the senses of sight, smell & hearing developed?
[This essay was written on just one side each of three sheets of lined notepaper. The sheets were folded together, and ‘Dr. Corbett’ was written on the top sheet]