ACQUIRED AND ABNORMAL CHARACTERS. 4.7 



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 

 systematic 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 sev- 

 eral generations. 



" The same author discovered similar changes of 

 habit, even in bees." * 



The marked heredity of habits has led some mod- 

 ern writers to claim that the instincts of animals are 

 but the experiences of past generations, that are ac- 

 cumulated and established through inheritance. Many 

 of the most valuable characteristics of the various im- 

 proved breeds of animals have been produced by the 

 inheritance of habits of the system, arising from the 

 conditions and treatment to which they have been 

 subjected. 



The remarkable records recently made by the 

 American trotting-horse are the result of training and 

 inheritance. 8 



The dairy breeds of cattle inherit a marked func- 



1 Ribot on " Heredity," p. 17. 



2 The first trotting-match in America was made in 1818, for a stake 

 of $1,000, against time. It was won by a horse called Boston Blue, in 

 the then unprecedented time of three minutes (" The Horse in Amer- 

 ica," by Herbert, vol. ii., p. 133). 



