Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

230 THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS' NESTS.
phenomena presented by their mode of building their
nests, when fairly compared with those exhibited by
the great mass of mankind in building their houses,
indicate no essential difference in the kind or nature
of the mental faculties employed. If instinct means
anything, it means the capacity to perform some complex act without teaching or experience, It implies
innate ideas of a very definite kind, and, if established,
would overthrow Mr. Mill's sensationalism and all the
modern philosophy of experience. That the existence
of true instinct may be established in other cases is
not impossible, but in the particular instance of birds'
nests, which is usually considered one of its strongholds, I cannot find a particle of evidence to show the
existence of anything beyond those lower reasoning
and imitative powers, which animals are universally
admitted to nossess.