CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT 267 



INHERITED CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT IN 

 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



The possibility, or even probability, of inherited variations 

 of instinct in a state of nature will be strengthened by briefly 

 considering a few cases under domestication. We shall thus 

 be enabled to see the part which 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 their mental qualities. 

 With cats, for instance, one naturally takes to catching rats, 

 and another m.ice, and these tendencies are known to be in- 

 herited. One cat, according to Mr. St. John, always brought 

 home game-birds, another hares or rabbits, and another 

 hunted on marshy ground and almost nightly caught wood- 

 cocks 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 mind or periods of time, being inherited. But let 

 us look to the familiar case of the breeds of the dogs: it can- 

 not be doubted that young pointers (I have myself seen a 

 striking instance) 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 ten- 

 dency to run round, instead of at, a flock of sheep, by shep- 

 herd dogs. I cannot see that these actions, performed without 

 experience 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 cab- 

 bage — I cannot see that these actions differ essentially from 

 true instincts. If we were to behold one kind of wolf, when 

 young and without any training, as 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 



