ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTINCTS. 197 



played an important part, and at present we are confininfr 

 our attention to the evidence concerning the formation of 

 secondary instincts, or the mere lapsing of intelligence into 

 instinct without the aid of selection. 



We see, then, that the instinct of wildness may be eradi- ' 

 Gated by mere disuse, without any assistance from the 

 principle of selection, and further, that this effect persists, or 

 becomes but gradually obliterated, through successive genera- 

 tions of the animals when feral, or restored to their abori- 

 ginal conditions of life. Conversely, it has now to be shown 

 that instincts of wildness may be acquired by the hereditary 

 transmission of novel experiences, also without the aid of 

 selection. This is shown conclusively by the original tame- 

 ness of animals in islands unfrequented by man, gradually 

 passing into an hereditary instinct of wildness as the special 

 experiences of man's proclivities accumulate ; for although 

 selection may here play a subordinate part, it must be a very 

 subordinate one. Paoes mi^ht be filled with facts on this 

 head from the writings of travellers, but to economize space 

 I cannot do better than refer to Mr. Darwin's remarks, with 

 their appended references in his chapter at the end of this 

 volume. To these remarks, however, I may add that the 

 developmentof fire-arms, together with the growth of sporting- 

 interests, has given game of all kinds an instinctive know- 

 ledge of what constitutes " safe distance," as every sportsman 

 can testify; and that such instinctive adaptation to newly 

 developing conditions may take place without much aid 

 from selection is shown by the short time, or the small 

 number of generations, which is sufficient to allow for the 

 change — witness, for instance, the following, which I quote 

 from the paper on "Hereditary Instinct" by the careful 

 observer, Andrew Knight : — " I have witnessed, within the 

 period above mentioned, of nearly sixty years, a very great 

 change in the habits of the Woodcock. In the first part of 

 that time, when it had recently arrived in the autumn, it was 

 very tame ; it usually chuckled when disturbed, and took 

 only a very short flight. It is now, and has been during 

 many years, comparatively a very wild bird, which generally 

 rises in silence, and takes a comparatively long flight, excited, 

 I conceive, by increased hereditary fear of man."* 



* Phil. Tram., 1837, p. 369. 



