"An instinct is an agent which performs blindly and ignorantly a work of intelligence and knowledge."
To gather acorns in the balmy days of October and store them for the cold of winter, is a work of intelligence and knowledge. Can we believe that the blue jays and squirrels perform this work blindly and ignorantly? If they do, then the storing of a single nut would be a miracle. Watch a red squirrel while gathering acorns and note carefully his intelligent acts. If there is a clear spot beneath the oak he drops the acorns on to it, even if he has to carry each nut from one side to the other of the tree. Note how carefully he selects the fruit: no wormy nuts are wanted. In fact, he exercises the same thoughtful care that a human being would exercise under like conditions. Does he do the work blindly?
Instinct, as applied to the lives of wild animals, is such an elusive and meaningless term, that it is a pity it should be used so often by writers on natural history. The word "instinct" savors of the supernatural, and was invented in ancient times to separate man from the brute, when the lower animals were supposed to lack reason. The word "heredity" is a far better word, for it renders intelligible all of fact that the word "instinct" implies, without resort to imagination and the supernatural.
It is claimed by some writers that the sense of direction is an instinct which guides birds in migration. As one writer states it: "They may be frightened and become confused, as by being frequently shot at, but once beyond the danger-line, their instinct regains control, and they will resume their journey in a direct line for their ultimate destination, and that, too, without stopping to think which way is the right way."
If this were true, if birds could launch themselves into the air and go South without thought, and, if turned aside, miraculously regain their course without a thought as to the right way, then indeed would I be forced to admit the supernatural, to acknowledge that the days of miracles were not past, but it would upset all my preconceived ideas of Dame Nature and her laws.
Really, before we resort to miracles to explain migration, would it not be well to turn to natural laws—laws that are explained by intelligent thought after careful observation?
I have ever found the birds as intelligent in relation to the needs of their lives as we are to our lives. Migration is not an exception to the rule.