g8 Eli-IOT, IiiherHancc of Acquired Characters. [January 



with a dog of another breed. These puppies would be mongrels 

 showing traits of both parents. Now if this female is again 

 mated with a pure-blooded dog of its own species, the offspring 

 will be pure, but occasionally in some of the litters, it may be 

 years afterwards, there will appear in some of the offspring char- 

 acters belonging to the breed to which the first dog belonged. 

 These having been received by the female, were retained and 

 transmitted to her offspring, though apparently they may have 

 been dormant for considerable periods of time. 



Birds acquire habits not possessed by their parents. I cite an 

 instance. Currituck Sound, in North Carolina, where wild fowl 

 are accustomed to pass the greater portion of the winter, is a 

 great resort of sportsmen, who pursue the birds in every way 

 to accomplish their destruction. This at length was carried to 

 such a degree that the fowl had no place left for them to rest dur- 

 ing the day. Some years ago the gunners were surprised to find 

 that whenever the weather permitted, as soon as a gun was fired 

 in the early morning, the birds would rise and betake themselves to 

 the ocean, and remain congregated on the water, just beyond the 

 line of the breakers, and would not return until night closed in. 

 This custom was acquired by birds of succeeding years, until the 

 habit has become apparently established. Now it may be said 

 that this is not an acquired habit, but the result of example, the 

 old birds leading the young to the sea. But this would be to 

 assume that the majority of the birds which commenced this 

 habit had survived and returned to this locality every winter. 

 And even if the young, without at first comprehending the 

 reason for so strange a proceeding, merely followed the old birds, 

 is it reasonable to suppose they would remain in such an unusual 

 locality throughout the day, deprived of their food, which could 

 be obtained in profusion on the other side of the narrow beach } 

 It must have been something more powerful than the mere ex- 

 ample of the ff ight of the old birds to the ocean, witnessed by the 

 young for the first time, which compelled them to remain. Can 

 we not more reasonably presume that it was the knowledge ac- 

 quired by the parents that this was a secure method to escape 

 from a threatened danger, and transmitted to the young who 

 assumed the habit as part of their nature.? 



Instances of transmission of acquired habits are found in the 

 change of nesting among birds. Geese proverbially make their 



