20G CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT Chap. VII. 



could be g'iven of various shades ol' disjKjsitiou and of taste, 

 • and likcAvisc 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 dof^ : it cannot 

 be doubted that younj^ 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 ; retrie\-ing 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 with- 

 out experience by the young, and in nearly the same manner 

 by each indi\'idual, 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 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 assur- 

 edly call these actions instinctive. Domestic instincts, as they 

 may be called, are certainly far less fixed than natural in- 

 stincts; but they have been acted on by far less rigorous selec- 

 lion, and have been transmitted for an incomparably shorter 

 period, imder less fixed conditions of life. 



HoAV strongly these domestic instincts, habits, and dis- 

 positions, are inherited, and how curiously they become 

 mingled, is well shown when diflferent breeds of dogs are 

 crossed. Thus it is known that a cross with a bull-dog has 

 afiFected for many generations the courage and obstinacy of 

 greyhounds ; and a cross Avith a greyhound has given to a 

 whole famih^ of shepherd-dogs a tendency to hunt hares. 

 These domestic instincts, when thus tested by crossing, resem- 

 ble natural instincts, which in a like manner become curiously 

 blended together, and for a long period exhibit traces of the 

 instincts of either parent : for example, Le Koy describes a dog, 

 whose great-grandfather was a wolf, and this dog showed a 

 trace of its wild parentage only in one way, by not com- 

 ing in a straight line to his master, when called. 



Domestic instmcts are sometimes spoken of as actions 

 which have bec^.me inherited solelv fi"om long - continued 



