We are apt to think that all animals are guided in their conduct by instinct, that is by a sort of idea that is born in them. For instance, we imagine that a young otter swims naturally directly he is put into water, or that a young deer runs away from a man from a natural inborn fear of him.
Mr. W. Long in his book "School of the Woods" shows that animals largely owe their cleverness to their mothers who teach them while yet young. Thus he has seen an otter carry two of her young upon her back into the water, and after swimming about for a little while she suddenly dived from under them and left them struggling in the water. But she rose near them and helped them to swim back to the shore. In this way she gradually taught them to swim.
I once saw a lioness in East Africa sitting with her four little cubs all in a row watching me approaching her. She looked exactly as though she were teaching her young ones how to act in the case of a man coming.
She was evidently saying to them, "Now, cubbies, I want you all to notice what a white man is like. Then, one by one, you must jump up and skip away, with a whisk of your tail. The moment you are out of sight in the long grass you must creep and crawl till you have got to leeward (down-wind) of him; then follow him, always keeping him to windward, so that you can smell whereabouts he is and he cannot find you."
Teaching the Youngsters.
In "The School of the Woods," Long writes:
"Watch, say, a crow's nest. One day you will see the mother bird standing near the nest and stretching her wings over her little ones. Presently the young stand up and stretch their wings in imitation. That is the first lesson.
"Next day, perhaps, you will see the old bird lifting herself to tip-toe and holding herself there by vigorous flapping. Again the young imitate and soon learn that their wings are a power to sustain them. Next day you may see both parent birds passing from branch to branch about the nest aided by their wings in the long jumps. The little ones join and play and, lo! they have learned to fly without even knowing that they were being taught."