HABIT. 5 



be rendered so slight as not to merit the title of an instinct, 

 as we may see by the difference in tameness between the 

 young of our domestic animals and the offspring of their 

 respective wild representatives of common ancestry. The 

 influence of use and selection on instinct gives us, in the 

 dog, members of the same species with such widely differ- 

 ing instincts as those of the foxhound, greyhound, pointer, 

 collie, and retriever, for example. The progeny of wild 

 horses, taken up young and reared under civilised con- 

 ditions, are far more difficult to break in and render far 

 less willing^and less intelligent service than the offspring 

 of horses which have been bred for many generations in 

 close companionship with man. The semi-wild ponies of 

 the Himalayas (Spiti, for instance) being constantly ex- 

 posed when grazing to injury from falling snow, ice, stones, 

 &c,, and to the attacks of wild beasts, exhibit such extreme 

 watchfulness against danger, that, even in safe places, 

 they shy at the slightest provocation in a manner which 

 is highly unpleasant to the rider. This instinctive shying, 

 apart from fulness of *' beans," " shortness " of work, or 

 love of displaying power, is a faculty which has become 

 comparatively dormant among highly civilised horses. 



As instincts are in the species, so are habits in the 

 individual. The power of a habit in diminishing or 

 strengthening the force of instinct is, as we have seen, 

 well marked. In fact, a large portion of the art of horse- 

 breaking consists in establishing in the animal habits 

 which are opposed to his instincts, especially that of self- 

 preservation. Thus we have the habit of obedience to 

 man, under the influence of which the well-trained charger 



