12 The Irish Naturalist. [January, 



THE EVOI.UTIONIST IN THE FARMYARD. 



wild Traits In Tame Animals, being some familiar studies 

 In Evolution. By Louis Robinson, M.D., 8vo, pp. viii., 329. 

 6 plates and 10 illustrations in the text. Edinburgh and London ; 

 William Blackwood and Sons, 1897. Price \os. 6d. nett. 



Dr. Robinson's object in this interesting and suggestive book is to 

 point out how the common and easily observed habits of our domestic 

 animals throAv light on the ways of their wild ancestors. The qualities 

 which make our four-footed friends valuable and serviceable to us are 

 traced back, with more or less probability, to the needs of the primitive 

 animal societies before these were disturbed by the appearance of man. 

 Dr. Robinson, appropriately enough, begins with ourselves, and traces 

 the pleasure which the modern naturalist takes in the study of the 

 living things around him to the necessities of his savage ancestor, who 

 depended for his food on his powers of observing natural objects and 

 reasoning from what he saw. The fidelity of the Dog to his master 

 represents the primitive instincts of animals accustomed to hunt in 

 packs and dependent for their success on mutual co-operation. Perhaps' 

 however, some readers of Dr. Robinson's pages will feel too much respect 

 for the modern dog's intelligence to accept the theory that he regards 

 the members of the human family, whose home he shares, as " elongated 

 and abnormally cunning dogs." 



The contrasts between our two domesticated species of Equus — the 

 Horse and the Ass — are explained by the different surroundings of the 

 two species in their wild vState. The swiftness of the horse was necessary 

 to a plain-dwelling animal w^hich had to flee for life from the pursuit of 

 wolves or wild dogs ; while the habit of shying, sometimes so objection- 

 able in modern horses, tells of a time when a deadly enemy might lurk 

 in any thicket. The sure-footed, rough-coated, strong-nerved ass^ on 

 the other hand, is marked by those characters as originally a mountaineer. 

 The strong aversion to enter a stream of water is believed by our author 

 to be a survival of the instinct which led his ancestors, in their primitive 

 African home, to avoid plunging into rivers which were the abode of 

 crocodiles. Several times in the book does Dr. Robii:.son refer to the 

 " inbred horror of lizards and snakes " shown by most mammals. He 

 believes this to be a "vestigial echo of the long and deadl}^ struggle 

 between the warm and cold-blooded populations which must have 

 gone on without intermission for many thousands of generations." In 

 the case of snakes, at any rate, the poison fangs of so man}^ species seem 

 sufficient explanation of the fear which they inspire. In connection 

 with this subject. Dr. Robinson suggests that the hissing note of the 

 young of most animals nesting in holes in trees — such as owls, wild-cats, 

 bats, and woodpeckers — is to be regarded as "mimicking" the well- 

 known warning sound of the serpent. A point of considerable interest 



