LliZEDS AND THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 417 



Dr. H. B. Shank, of Lansing, informs me that a cat owned by him had learned to open 

 doors that were secured with a latch, and all of her descendants inherited the same peculiar 

 ity; while another family of cats, brought up with them, did not learn the trick, although 

 they had sufficient intelligence to ask the assistance of their more expert friends when they 

 wanted a door opened. Girou de Buzarringues reports the frequently-quoted case of a man 

 who had the habit, when in bed, of lying on his back and crossing the right leg over the 

 laft. One of his daughters had the same habit from birth, and constantly assumed that posi 

 tion when in the cradle. Darwin reports the interesting case of a boy who had the singular 

 habit, when pleased, of rapidly moving his fingers parallel to each other, and, when much 

 excited, of raising both hands, with the fingers still moving, to the sides of his face on a 

 level with his eyes; this boy, when almost an old man, could hardly resist this trick when 

 much pleased, but, from its absurdity, concealed it. He had eight children. Of these, a 

 girl, when pleased, at the age of four and a half years moved her fingers exactly in the same 

 way, and, what is still more odd, when much excited, she raised both her hands, with her fingers 

 still moving, to the sides of her -face, in exactly the same manner her father had done, and 

 sometimes still continued to do when alone. 



The handwriting of members of the same family is said to frequently present a marked 

 resemblance; and it has been asserted that English boys, when taught to write in France, 

 naturally cling to their English manner of writing. There are families in which the special 

 use of the left hand is hereditary. Girou mentions a family in which the father, the chil 

 dren, and most of the grandchildren, were left-handed. One of the latter betrayed its left- 

 handedness from earliest infancy, nor could it be broken of the habit, though the left hand 

 was bound and swathed. 



Wild animals, living on islands not often visited by man, do not fear him, but allow the 

 closest approach without hesitation. When the Falkland Islands were first visited by man, 

 the large, wolf- like dog (Canis Antarcticus) fearlessly came to meet Byron s sailors, who, mis 

 taking this ignorant curiosity for ferocity, ran. into the water to avoid them. Even recently, 

 a man, by holding a piece of meat in one hand and a knife in the other, could sometimes 

 stick them at night. On an island in the sea of Aral, when first discovered by Butakoff, the 

 Saigak Antelopes, generally very timid and watchful, did not fly, but, on the contrary, 

 looked at the visitors with a sort of curiosity. So, again, on the shores of the Mauritius, the 

 Manatee was not, at first, in the least afraid of man, and thus it has been in several quarters 

 of the world with seals and the morse. Quadrupeds, and also birds which have seldom been 

 disturbed by man, dread him no more than do our English birds, or the cows or horses, graz 

 ing in the fields. 



Dr. Kidder, in his description of the &quot; Sheath-bill &quot; ( Chionis minor), on Kerguelen Isl 

 and, says: When I sat down upon a rock and kept perfectly still for a few moments, they 

 crowded around me like a mob of street boys around an organ-grinder, and all seemed per 

 fectly fearless and trustful. That the descendants of such animals, inheriting the accumu 

 lated experience of their ancestors, become wild, is shown in the instinctive dread of man 

 exhibited by the young of the same and allied species that are frequently brought into con 

 tact with him. G. Leroy observes, that in districts where a sharp war is waged against the 

 fox, the cubs, on first coming out of their earths, and before they can have acquired any 

 experience, are more cautious, crafty, and suspicious, than are the old foxes in places where 

 no attempt is made to trap them. Knight, who for sixty years devoted himself to system 

 atic observation of this class of facts, says that during that time the habits of the English 

 woodcock underwent great changes, and that its fear of man was considerably increased by 

 its transmission through several generations. The same author discovered similar changes 

 of habit, even in bees. 



The marked heredity of habits has led some modern writers to claim that the instincts 



