INSTINCT 53 



strangers or intruders of any kind are on or near the 

 premises, concerning whom he is impressed with the 

 propriety of giving me warning. Such faculties almost 

 induce us to believe that the canine race is gifted with 

 the powers of reason. 



There are two kinds of instinct, one which leads to 

 a supposition of what will most probably happen ; the 

 other from a knowledge of what has followed certain 

 events and will occur again in case those events are 

 repeated. The first is enlightened instinct, the 

 peculiar faculty of man the other blind instinct pos- 

 sessed by animals. The latter includes hunger and 

 thirst, the necessity for shelter against the vicissitudes 

 and inclemency of the weather, the desire to repeat 

 causes which have produced agreeable sensations, the 

 fear of pain or death, with others, calculated to continue 

 the propagation and preservation of their respective 

 kinds. 



Foxes, after they have been pursued by hounds, may 

 be said to gain a kind of mechanical instinct, or restless- 

 ness ; they have experienced terror, and fatigue may 

 have caused them pain ; therefore they hold in remem- 

 brance a variety of sensations; a sense of danger is 

 established to which " terror adds wings." After 

 having once undergone the ordeal of being hunted, they 

 are more on the alert to avoid a repetition of the 

 ceremony; and whatever the stratagem may be by 

 which a fox first makes his escape, he will generally 

 adopt the same ruse on future occasions. This is con- 

 vincing proof that they possess the faculty of memory. 

 Habit inculcates a chain of conceptions, differing 

 materially from each other according to the circum- 

 stances from which they derive their origin. This 

 affords a reason why foxes differ so very essentially in 

 the methods they adopt to effect their escape when 

 chased by hounds. 



The wild mountain fox, the woodland fox, and the 

 fox bred in small game preserves, spinnies, and gorse 

 coverts, differ from each other in their modes of living. 



