INSTINCT 193 



hear from Mr. Brent, which cannot fly eighteen inches 

 high without going head over heels. It may be doubted 

 whether any one would have thought of training a dog to 

 point, had not some one dog naturally shown a tendency 

 in this line ; and this is known occasionally to happen, 

 as I once saw in a pure terrier : the act of pointing is 

 probably, as many have thought, only the exaggerated 

 pause of an animal preparing to spring on its prey. 

 When the first tendency to point was once displayed, 

 methodical selection and the inherited effects of com- 

 pulsory training in each successive generation would 

 soon complete the work ; and unconscious selection is 

 still at work, as each man tries to procure, without 

 intending to improve the breed, dogs which will stand 

 and hunt best. On the other hand, habit alone in 

 some cases has sufficed ; no animal is more difficult to 

 tame than the young of the wild rabbit ; scarcely any 

 animal is tamer than the young of the tame rabbit ; 

 but I do not suppose that domestic rabbits have ever 

 been selected for tameness ; and I presume that we 

 must attribute the whole of the inherited change from 

 extreme wildness to extreme tameness, simply to habit 

 and long-continued close confinement. 



Natural instincts are lost under domestication : a 

 remarkable instance of this is seen in those breeds of 

 fowls which very rarely or never become ( broody,' 

 that is, never wish to sit on their eggs. Familiarity 

 alone prevents our seeing how universally and largely 

 the minds of our domestic animals have been modified 

 by domestication. It is scarcely possible to doubt that 

 the love of man has become instinctive in the dog. All 

 wolves, foxes, jackals, and species of the cat genus, when 

 kept tame, are most eager to attack poultry, sheep, and 

 pigs ; and this tendency has been found incurable in 

 dogs which have been brought home as puppies from 

 countries, such as Tierra del Fuego and Australia, where 

 the savages do not keep these domestic animals. How 

 rarely, on the other hand, do our civilised dogs, even 

 when quite young, require to be taught not to attack 

 poultry, sheep, and pigs ! No doubt they occasionally 



