196 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. 



The proof that instinctive wildness natural to a species 

 may be lost by disuse is strikingly rendered by the case of 

 rabbits. As Mr. Darwin remarks, "hardly any animal is 

 more difficult to tame than the young of the wild rabbit; 

 scarcely any animal is tamer than the young of the tame 

 rabbit ; but I can hardly suppose that domestic rabbits have 

 often been selected for tameness alone ; so we must attribute 

 at least the greater part of the inherited change from extreme 

 wildness to extreme tameness, to habit and long-continued 

 close confinement ;* and in his MSS he adds, " Captain 

 Sulivan, E.N., took some young rabbits from the Falkland 

 Islands, where this animal has been wild {i.e., feral) for 

 several generations, and he is convinced that they are more 

 easily tamed than really wild rabbits in England. The 

 facilitv of breaking in the feral horses in La Plata can, I 

 think, be accounted for on the same principle of some little 

 of the effects of domestication being long inherent in the 

 breed." Similarly Mr. Darwin points out in his MSS that 

 there is a great contrast between the natural tameness of the 

 tame duck and the natural wildness of the wild.f The still 

 more remarkable contrasts which are presented between our 

 domestic dogs, cats, and cattle I shall consider later on ; for 

 in them it is probable that the principle of selection has 



belonging to him which had great difficulty in acquiring by tuition the 

 accomplishment of begging, but .afterwards habitually practised it as a general 

 expression of desire. Mr. Hurt then adds, " One of his daughters, who has 

 never seen her father, is in the constant habit of sitting up, although she has 

 never been taught to do so, and has not seen others sit up." 



* Origin of Species, p. 211. 



t With reference to these points I may here appropriately quote the fol- 

 lowing note, which occurs among Mr. Darwin's MSS. 



" ' The wild rabbit,' says Sir J. Sebright {On Instincts, 1836, p. 10) 'is by 

 far the most untameable animal that I know, and I have had most of the 

 British Mammalia in my possession. I have taken the young ones from the 

 nest, and endeavoured to tame them, but could never succeed. The domestic 

 rabbit, on the contrary, is perhaps more easily tamed than any other animal, 

 excepting the dog.' We have an exactly parallel case in the young of the 

 wild and tame Duck." 



I may also quote the following interesting corroboration of the above 

 statement with reference to ducks, from a letter recently published in Nature, 

 by Dr. Rae, F.B.S. (July 19, 1883) :— "If the eggs of a wild duck are placed 

 with those of a tame one under a hen to be hatched, the ducklings from the 

 former, on the very day they leave the egg, will immediately endeavour to 

 hide themselves, or take to the water, if there is any water, should any 

 person approach, whilst the young from the tame duck's eggs will show little 

 or no alarm, indicating in both cases a clear instanco of instinct or ' inherited 

 memory.' " 



