ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. 315 



the theory. We may, therefore, take these as fair samples of 

 the arguments generally appealed to. 



After quoting Darwin's remarks on this subject, Romanes 

 adds : 



" This case of the tumblers and pouters is singularly interesting 

 and very apposite to the proposition before us ; for not only are the 

 actions utterly useless to the animals themselves, but they have now 

 become so ingrained into their psychology as to have become sever- 

 ally distinctive of different breeds, and so not distinguishable from 

 true instincts. This extension of an hereditary and useless habit 

 into a distinction of race or type is most important in the present 

 connection. If these cases stood alone, they would be enough to show 

 that useless habits may become hereditary, and this to an extent which 

 renders them indistinguishable from true instincts." x 



Granting that we have here true instincts, and I do not 

 doubt that, what proof have we that they originated in hab- 

 its ? Did there preexist in the ancestors of these breeds organ- 

 ized instinct bases, which, through the fancier's art of selective 

 breeding, were -gradually strengthened until they attained the 

 development which now characterizes the tumblers and pouters ? 

 Or was there no such basis to start with, but only a new mode 

 of behavior, accidentally acquired by some one or more individ- 

 uals, and then perpetuated by transmission to their offspring, 

 and further developed by artificial selection ? The original 

 action in either species is called a " habit," and this so-called 

 habit must have been inherited ; ergo, habit can become 

 instinct. Obviously, argument of that kind can have weight 

 only with those who overlook the test-point, namely, the real 

 nature and origin of the initial action. 



If the instinct had its inception in a true habit, i.e., in an 

 action reduced to habit by repetition in the individual, and not 

 determined in any already existing hereditary activity, is it at 

 all credible that it could have been transmitted from parent to 

 progeny ? Does not our general experience contradict such an 

 assumption in the most positive manner ? But may not the 

 habit have originated a great many times, and by repetition in 

 successive generations, gradually have become " stereotyped 



1 Mental Evolution in Animals, p. 189. 



