Are Acquired Habits inherited? 291 



be most interesting to know how far this complete modifi- 

 cation of duck habits is now congenital and how far it is 

 due to the individual plasticity which enables an organism 

 to adapt itself to its special environment. The habits 

 of the magpie in England have altered greatly. " It 

 is no longer the merry, saucy hanger-on of the homestead, 

 as it was to writers of former days, who were constantly 

 alluding to its disposition, but is become the suspicious 

 thief, shunning the gaze of men, and knowing that danger 

 may lurk in every bush." * How far are the sly and 

 thievish habits of the magpie in England now con- 

 genital ; how far are they acquired under the influence of 

 tradition ? 



Our second difficulty is to find cases in which all effects 

 of selection are excluded. The habit from which a breed 

 of dogs has received the name of pointers is, it would seem, 

 truly congenital. Darwin states that he had himself "gone 

 out with a young dog for the first time, and his innate 

 tendency was shown in a ludicrous manner, for he pointed 

 fixedly not only at the scent of game, but at sheep and 

 large white stones ; and when he found a lark's nest, we 

 were actually compelled to carry him along." But there 

 has been selection all along the line of pointer ancestry. 

 As Darwin says,f " The young pointer often points without 

 any instruction, imitation, or experience. . . . The most 

 important distinction between pointing, &c., and a true 

 instinct is that the former is less strictly inherited, and 

 varies greatly in the degree of its inborn perfection." In 

 other words, there is much congenital variation, and 

 selection is still in progress. The congenital variations 

 will be claimed by the non-transmissionist as evidence 



* " Dictionary of Birds," p. 721. 



t The quotation is from the uncondensed MS. of the " Origin of Species," 

 Romanes' " Mental Evolution in Animals," pp. 236, 237. 



