CHANGES OF HABIT OH INSTINCT. 2V 



IJ^fHERITED CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT IX DOilES- 



TICATED ANIMALS. 



^ The possibility, or even probability, of inherited varia- 

 tions of instinct in a state of nature will be strengtliened 

 by briefly considering a few cases under domestication. 

 We shall thus be enabled to see the part wliich habit and 

 the selection of so-called spontaneous variations have played 

 in modifying the mental qualities of our domestic animals. 

 It is notorious how much domestic animals vary in tlioir 

 mental qualities. With cats, for instance, one naturally 

 takes to catching rats, and anotlier mice, and these ten- 

 dencies are known to be inherited. One cat, according to 

 Mr. St. John, always brought home game birds, anotlier 

 hares or rabbits, and another hunted on marshy ground and 

 almost nightly caught woodcocks or snipes. A number of 

 curious and authentic instances could be given of various 

 shades of disposition and of taste, and likewise of the oddest 

 tricks, associated with certain frames of minds or periods 

 of time, being inherited. But let us look to the familiar 

 case of the breeds of the dogs: it cannot be doubted that 

 young pointers (I have myself seen striking instances) will 

 sometimes point and even back other dogs the very first 

 time that they are taken out; retrieving is certainly in 

 some degree inherited by retrievers; and a tendency to run 

 round, instead of at, a flock of sheep, by shepherd dogs. 

 I cannot see that these actions, performed without experi- 

 ence by the young, and in nearly the same manner by each 

 individual, performed with eager delight by each breed, 

 and without the end being known — for the young pointer 

 can no more know that he points to aid his master, than 

 the white butterfly knows why she lays her eggs on the leaf, 

 of the cabbage — I cannot see that these actions dilTep 

 essentially from true instincts. If we were to beliold one 

 kind of wolf, when young and without any training, aa 

 soon as it scented its prey, stand motionless like a statue, 

 and then slowly crawl forward with a peculiar gait; and 

 another kind of wolf rushing round, instead of at, a herd 

 of deer, and driving them to a distant point, we should 

 assuredly call these actions instinctive. Domestic instincts, 

 as they may be called, are certainly far less fixed than 

 natural instincts; but they have been acted on by far lesa 



