The word will be employed in the following pages in a wide and
comprehensive sense. We shall have to consider, not only the kind
of animal behaviour which implies intelligence, sometimes of a high
order; not only such behaviour as animal play and courtship, which
suggests emotional attributes; but also forms of behaviour which, if
not unconscious, seem to lack conscious guidance and control. We shall
deal mainly with the behaviour of the animal as a whole, but also
incidentally with that of its constituent particles, or cells; and we
shall not hesitate to cite (in a parenthetic section) some episodes of
plant life as examples of organic behaviour.
Thus broadly used, the term in all cases indicates and draws attention
to the reaction of that which we speak of as behaving, in response
to certain surrounding conditions or circumstances which evoke the
behaviour. The middy would not talk of the behaviour of his ship as
she lay at anchor in Portland harbour; the word is only applicable
when there is action and reaction as the vessel ploughs through a
heavy sea, or when she answers to the helm. Apart from gravitation the
glacier and the river would not “behave in a similar manner.” Only
under the conditions comprised under the term “magnetic field” do iron
filings exhibit certain peculiarities of behaviour. And so, also, in
other cases. The behaviour of cells is evoked under given organic or
external conditions; instinctive, intelligent, and emotional behaviour
are called forth in response to those circumstances which exercise a
constraining influence at the moment of action.
It is therefore necessary, in a discussion of animal behaviour, that we
should endeavour to realize, as far as possible, in every case, first,
the nature of the animal under consideration; secondly, the conditions
under which it is placed; thirdly, the manner in which the response is
called forth by the circumstances, and fourthly, how far the behaviour
adequately meets the essential conditions of the situation.
II.--BEHAVIOUR OF CELLS
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