V. SUMMARY
1. Respiration in pigeons is sensitive to various stimuli, and since its alterations of rate, amplitude, etc., can be easily recorded pneumo-graphically without frightening the animals, it may well serve as a process through which to study their mental life.
2. By repetition meaningless stimuli, for example, pistol-shots, quickly lose their disturbing influence; whereas the breathing remains sensitive to those of a significant character, such as the noises made by other birds.
3. Reaction to light of moderate intensity consists principally in an immediate quickening, the amount varying with the color; since a direct correspondence was found between color-preference and breathing-rate, it would seem that here agreeable feeling involves increased breathing activity.
4. Visual, acoustical, probably tactual, and certainly organic data, are the principal sensory factors of the associations of pigeons.
5. The animals readily form useful associations by a method of "trial and error," or the selection of successful movements which were at first accidental.
6. Apparently a pigeon does not learn by merely seeing a new act performed by another pigeon; yet there are instances of simple ("instinctive") imitation, and "trial and error" learning is not wholly independent of social conditions, since it proceeds much more satisfactorily if the animal is trained at least within hearing distance of other pigeons.
7. When a habit is being formed, the "period" required for the first test is usually very long, but learning proceeds quite rapidly during the next few trials; later it is more gradual, but it continues till the act becomes thoroughly familiar.
8. Associations are fairly permanent, and some remain practically unaltered for at least six weeks. Modification is easily accomplished, however, on the basis of new experience.
9. Pigeons differ widely both as to the ease with which they acquire associations and also as to their permanence. Difference in activity seems the chief reason for this.
10. While these birds seem mentally inferior to English sparrows and to various mammals which have been tested in a similar manner, they are capable of numerous ready adjustments. They discover circuitous labyrinth passages, they learn to manipulate latch apparatus when adapted to their natural habits and conveniently placed, and they easily reach their food by depending upon the position, color, or form of the box containing it. But the process is apparently simple association throughout. There is no evidence of higher mental activity—no looking the situation over and acting accordingly, no "reasoning" in the proper sense of the word, but only blind movements, some of which are retained and become highly specialized, merely because successful.
REACTIONS OF THE CRAYFISH
BY J. CARLETON BELL
The crayfish has long been the typical Crustacean for anatomical and physiological investigations, but it is only recently that its reactions to sensory stimuli have been made the object of experimental study. The purpose of this paper is to describe the reactions of the animal to certain sensory stimuli under experimental conditions, and to estimate the relative importance of these stimuli in the life of the organism.