186 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. 



same trick under the same frame of mind, and which was 

 not quite conquered even in old age : in this instance there 

 could not possibly have been any imitation."* 



That the more frequent and more pronounced tricks of 

 manner which are manifested by idiots are likewise inherited 

 is highly probable ; but I have no evidence on this point, as 

 idiots in civilized countries are not allowed to propagate. 



In the case of animals, however, the evidence is abun- 

 dant. Thus, again to quote from Mr. Darwin's MSS, " the 

 Itev. W. Darwin Fox tells me that he had a Skye terrier 

 bitch which when begging rapidly moved her paws in a way 

 very different from that of any other dog which he had ever 

 seen ; her puppy, which never could have seen her mother 

 beg, now when full grown performs the same peculiar move- 

 ment exactly in the same way."f 



As regards the inheritance of disposition, we have only 

 to look to the sundry breeds of dogs to see how marked 

 differences of this kind may become signally distinctive of 

 different breeds. It will be remembered that at present we 

 are only concerned with the inheritance of useless, unintelli- 

 gent, or non-adaptive habits, and therefore have here nothing 

 to do with the useful and intelligent habits which are bred 

 into our various races of dogs by means of artificial selection 

 combined with training. But even in the case of purely 

 meaningless traits of character, which are of no use either to 

 the animals themselves or to man, we find the influences of 

 heredity at work. Thus, for instance, the useless and even 

 annoying habit of barking round a carriage, which occurs 

 among sundry breeds of dogs, is particularly pronounced in 

 the collie, and is truly innate or not dependent on imitation. 

 This is shown by the fact that collies which from puppyhood 

 have never seen other dogs bark at horses, will nevertheless 

 spontaneously begin to do so.J Several other useless traits 

 of character or disposition peculiar to different breeds might be 

 mentioned ; but I shall pass on to the most remarkable instance 



* This case is stated in different words in Variation of Animals and 

 Plants, &c., vol. i, pp. 450-1. 



t Here, however, I may remark that I have noticed several Syke terriers 

 perforin these movements while begging, so that the action seems to be due 

 to some race-distinction of a psychological kind, and not merely to an indi- 

 vidual peculiarity. It therefore leads on to the class of cases next considered 

 in the text. 



X See Nature, vol. xix, p. 234. 



