standard of the more intelligent; and of supplying a stimulus to the development of habits which would otherwise be lacking. When a mongrel pup, whose development Dr. Wesley Mills watched and has described, was introduced to the society of other dogs, its progress was, he tells us, “extraordinarily rapid.” Instinctive imitation thus introduces into the conscious situation certain modes of behaviour, and if the development of the situation as a whole is pleasurable, there will be a tendency to its redevelopment, under the guidance of intelligence, on subsequent occasions. As in the case of other instincts and propensities, there is given through inheritance a more or less definite outline sketch of social procedure, which intelligence further defines, and refines, and shapes to more delicate issues. As a rule, however, intelligence does not tend to make the imitation as such more perfect. It may perfect the behaviour, but not necessarily on imitative lines. In the case, however, of the song and call-notes of birds, and not improbably the sounds of other animals, there does seem a predisposition to render the imitation as such more perfect. The facts, as afforded by such birds as the magpie, jay, starling, marsh-warbler, and mocking-bird, are familiar; and I have elsewhere[81] given some account of them. It may be specially noted that we have in this case that circular mode of activity on which, as we have seen, Professor Mark Baldwin lays so much stress. Professor Thorndike seems to regard the phenomena presented by imitative birds as somewhat of a mystery, and as the result of a specialization removed from the general course of mental development. And he says that, until we know whether there is in birds which repeat sounds any tendency to imitate in other lines, we cannot connect these phenomena with anything found in the mammals, or use them to advantage in a discussion of animal imitation as the forerunner of human. Upon the view, however, that such imitation is primarily instinctive and only secondarily intelligent, there seems no reason why we should expect to find imitation in birds running along any other lines than those which the hereditary instinct has marked out. And so far from being unable to use the phenomena to advantage in a discussion of animal imitation as a forerunner of human, we may perhaps see in them the best examples, other than those afforded by apes, of that intelligent imitation which is the precursor of the rational and reflective imitation of the boy or girl.