THE TAMING OF YOUNG ANIMALS 205 



only really domesticated passerine bird is the canary. Goldfish 

 are domesticated, and the invertebrate bees and silk-moths must not 

 be forgotten. It is not very easy to draw a line between domesticated 

 animals and animals that are often bred in partial or complete 

 captivity. Such antelopes as elands, fallow-deer, roe-deer, and 

 the ostriches of ostrich farms are on the border-line of being 

 domesticated. 



It is also difficult to be quite certain as to what is meant by a 

 tame animal. Cockroaches usually scuttle away when they are 

 disturbed and seem to have learnt that human beings have a just 

 grievance against them. But many people have no horror of them. 

 A pretty girl, clean and dainty in her ways, and devoted to all 

 kinds of animals, used to like sitting in a kitchen that was infested 

 with these repulsive creatures, and told me that when she was 

 alone, they would run over her dress and were not in the least 

 startled when she took them up. I have heard of a butterfly 

 which used to come and sip sugar from the hand of a lady, and 

 those who have kept spiders and ants declare that these intelligent 

 creatures learn to distinguish their friends. So also fish like the 

 great carp in the garden of the palace of Fontainebleau, and many 

 fishes in aquaria and private ponds learn to come to be fed. I 

 do not think, however, that these ought to be called tame animals. 

 Most of the wild animals in menageries very quickly learn to distin- 

 guish one person from another, to obey the call of their keeper 

 and to come to be fed, although certainly they would be dangerous 

 even to the keeper if he were to enter their cages. To my mind, 

 tameness is something more than merely coming to be fed, and 

 in fact many tame animals are least tame when they are feeding. 

 Young carnivores, for instance, which can be handled freely and 

 are affectionate, very seldom can be touched whilst they are feed- 

 ing. The real quality of tameness is that the tame animal is not 

 merely tolerant of the presence of man, not merely has learned to 

 associate him with food, but takes some kind of pleasure in human 

 company and shows some kind of affection. 



On the other hand we must not take our idea of tameness merely 

 from the domesticated animals. These have been bred for many 

 generations, and those that were most wild, and that showed any 

 resistance to man, were killed or allowed to escape. Dogs are 

 always taken as the supreme example of tameness, and sentimen- 

 talists have almost exhausted the resources of language in praising 

 them. Like most people, I am very fond of dogs, but it is an 



