76 ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE INHERITED? 



TAMENESS OF RABBITS. 



Darwin holds that in some cases selection alone 

 has modified the instincts and dispositions ^f 

 domesticated animals, but that in most cases 

 selection and the inheritance of acquired habits 

 have concurred in effecting the change. " On the 

 other hand," he says, " habit alone in some cases 

 has sufficed ; 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 that 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." 1 



But there are strong, and to me irresistible, 

 arguments to the contrary. I think that the fol- 



1 Origin of Species, pp. 210, 211. 



