212 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



this even in England, in the greater wildness of all our large birds 

 in comparison with our small birds; for the large birds have been 

 most persecuted by man. We may safely attribute the greater 

 wildness of our large birds to this cause; for in uninhabited islands 

 large birds are not more fearful than small; and the magpie, so 

 wary in England, is tame in Norway, as is the hooded crow in 

 Egypt. 



That the mental qualities of animals of the same kind, born in 

 a state of nature, vary much, could be shown by many facts. Sev- 

 eral cases could also be adduced of occasional and strange habits 

 in wild animals, which, if advantageous to the species, might have 

 given rise, through natural selection, to new instincts. But I am 

 well aware that these general statements, without the facts in 

 detail, will produce but a feeble effect on the reader's mind. I can 

 only repeat my assurance, that I do not speak without good 

 evidence. 



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 con- 

 sidering a few cases under domestication. We shall thus be enabled 

 to see the part which habit and the selection of so-called spon- 

 taneous 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 mice, and these 

 tendencies are known to be inherited. 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 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, per- 

 formed 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 



