Difference m Habits. 20"; 



explanation seems the most plausible : and it will 

 probably be found that those low animals, to which 

 is denied the power of transmitting knowledge to 

 their descendants, by tradition, have given to them 

 a physical susceptibility, so that the benefits of ex- 

 perience are transmitted to the young, in regard to 

 those things needful for the preservation of the spe- 

 cies. This would be in harmony with the general 

 plan of creation, as manifested in other provisions 

 for the preservation of the species, by the plasticity 

 of their nature ; and it accounts for the observed 

 facts in domestication, and among the wild animals. 

 One has only to visit the coast of Iceland, where 

 the Eider-ducks are protected by the inhabitants, 

 and the coast of Greenland, where these birds are 

 hunted by the Esquimaux, to see the marked dif- 

 ference in their habits, in the two places. In Ice- 

 land, they are almost as tame as domestic fowls ; 

 while in those parts of Greenland, where they have 

 been hunted, they are among the most wary of 

 birds. We simply call attention to the subject, 

 and leave it for future observers to give us suffi- 

 cient data for determining, with certainty, the true 

 cause of that sudden change in all the animals of 

 a region, after a new form of danger appears among 

 them. 



If animals learn by experience, this fact alone 

 would settle the question of memory. But facts 

 are abundant showing that animals remember faces 

 even, and that for years. They often remember 

 what happens but once ; nor does this process of 

 memory seem to be a mere bald association of 



