SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 43 



fowl at all times means danger, their ways, 

 when once you know them, are much the 

 same. If the wild duck has reason to think 

 that her nimble little ducklings are in danger, 

 you will hear a couple of quacks, the head and 

 neck are stretched out on the water, and then 

 clap, clap, clap go her wings, sending up 

 showers of spray. When that performance is 

 over, you will find all the little swimmers have 

 disappeared somewhere. 



The common barnyard ducks I have seen act 

 in the same way, proving that although years 

 and years of domestication have altered the 

 plumage, and very much added to their weight 

 no small consideration from a dining point 

 of view the ways in which their ancestors were 

 trained have been transmitted by the laws or 

 rules of natural heredity to themselves. 



How strong this implanted instinct is we 

 use the word instinct for want of a better one 

 is very quickly shown ; for no matter how 

 long creatures have been domesticated, if left 

 entirely alone to their own devices they are 

 soon wild again. 



The fox, named by nomadic wanderers the 

 wild red -dog a fitting title for him is still 

 held up as a type of all the objectionable 



