White. — On Inherited Instincts in Animals. 273 



sight. He travels at a swift trot, with ears laid back, head 

 and neck bent down, and nose close to the ground, almost 

 between his fore legs, in which attitude he fills his mates with 

 terror. With much swishing of their tails and other signs of 

 fear (each one closely accompanied by her foal, who keeps 

 alongside its dam) they all start away in a mad gallop, urged 

 forward by their driver, who is then galloping from side to 

 side on their outskirts, threatening the laggards and stragglers 

 of the mob. 



A peculiar habit of the horse — evidently a custom inherited 

 from a far-away ancestor — is that when he leaves his mares 

 to make an excursion round about in order to find other mares 

 to add to his mob he will establish large heaps of his droppings 

 (dung) at certain places, so that any person seeing these heaps 

 would at once know that a stallion was running free at that 

 place. This remarkable instinct or sexual custom, like similar 

 customs amongst other animals, is to our ideas entirely use- 

 less, but they may at one time have served some useful end — 

 for instance, I have noticed that a stallion living at a distance 

 would never extend his beat within the boundaries occupied 

 by the other, possibly being in a measure warned by these 

 heaps of ordure. 



The exactitude with which the animal would measure his 

 distance when making a deposit was remarkable. On first com- 

 ing up he would for some time smell the heap, as if obtaining 

 certain knowledge of those preceding him ; then he would 

 step across the required distance and leave his deposit thereon 

 with the greatest exactitude. This was evidently done with a 

 special purpose, and was at times varied by staling on the 

 heap, the horse never requiring to look around to calculate 

 the position. This anecdote to some may seem out of place 

 and scarcely worthy of mention, but I venture to assume that 

 in the study of nature all such are worthy of record. 



I once tethered a quiet mare overnight, and the next 

 morning, being young and active, I coiled the rope and 

 jumped on the mare barebacked and rode about a mile, to 

 where our riding-horses were feeding, for the purpose of 

 driving them in and catching those required for the work in 

 hand. To my surprise, the old mare I rode became quite 

 unmanageable, and carried me forward at her best speed, 

 keeping well in the centre of the scurrying mob. The land in 

 those parts at that time had a great deal of spear-grass and 

 the prickly shrub called " wild Irishman " spread about, and 

 this, added to the fact that the mare only had a rope around 

 her neck, increased my difficulty in keeping a seat on my 

 hurrying steed. During this exciting gallop I became aware 

 of the fact that my favourite riding-horse (Ostrich) was closely 

 attended by a small foal, a circumstance which, so far as my 

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