CHAP. VIII.] CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT. 195 



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. 

 Several 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. 



Inlierited 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 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 mind 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 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 tendency 

 to run round, instead of at, a flock of sheep, by shepherd 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 cabbage 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 than 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 



