380 



and the materials not so loosely put together as when placed in the 

 holes of walls. It has also become so habituated to man that " by 

 its boldness it secures food not available to its congeners, and as a 

 result has several broods in a season, while its field-haunting 

 kindred have none of them more than two broods, and some have 

 only one." * Other animals, though not usually approaching houses, 

 keep in great meastire to the lands on which man raises his crops, 

 deriving their chief support from the produce of his labours. 

 These, which are often much molested on account of the damage 

 they do, have evidently been made more wary in the course of 

 generations, and are not easily approached, t It may be remarked 

 indeed that the fear of man which shows itself more or less among 

 all wild animals living in the same countries with him, is itself 

 evidently an acquired instinct, not being exhibited by species 

 entirely unacquainted with him, as in the case of animals living in 

 islands where man has not got a footing. J According as they are 

 brought more into contact with civilization and the human race, 

 they find cause more or less to alter their mode of life, shaping their 

 course in reference as well to the advantages which man sometimes 

 throws in their way, as, on the other hand, to the power he has 

 over them derived from his superior faculties and intelligence. 



A curious instance of the former, leading to an entire change of 

 habit, is recorded in the case of a rare bird called the Kea (Nestor 

 notabilis) one of the brush-tongued pai-rots found in New Zealand. 

 This bird appears to have formerly derived its food "from the 

 nectar of hardy flowers, the dnipes and berries of dwarfed shrubs" 

 that grow at a high elevation, to which may be added, " insects 

 found in the crevices of rocks or beneath the bark of trees ;" but 

 since the European has come in, and it has got acquainted with the 

 flocks of sheep introduced by him, it has acquired a taste for 



* Herbert Spencer's Principles of Biology, vol. ii., p. 458. 



t See some remarks by Weissenbom on the " Transmission of experience 

 in birds, in tbe form of instinctive knowledge ;" with instances adduced to 

 show " that the collective experience of many generations of animals has a 

 much more powerful influence on their behaviour, than their individual 

 experience." Mag. of Nat. Hist., 2nd Ser., vol. ii., p. 50. 



X See some remarks by Darwin on the tamencss of the birds in the 

 Galapagos Archipelago. Journal of Eesearches, &c, , p. 475. 



