Are Acquired Habits inherited f 281 



brood-hens ; and thus to determine how far hereditary in- 

 fluence outweighed the effects of the individual experience 

 of a foster parent's care. We need more experimental 

 evidence of this kind ; in the mean time the occurrence 

 of variations in the maternal instincts and their hereditary- 

 nature may be taken as generally accepted. 



But when hens bring up broods of species different 

 from their own there arise, not variations but modifica- 

 tions of this instinct. Eomanes quotes two cases. The 

 first* is from Jesse's "Gleanings." "A hen who had 

 reared three broods of ducks in three successive years, 

 became habituated to their taking to the water, and would 

 fly to a large stone in the middle of the pond, and quietly 

 and contentedly watch her brood as they swam about it. 

 The fourth year she hatched her own eggs, and finding 

 that her chickens did not take to the water as the 

 ducklings had done, she flew to the stone in the pond, 

 and called them to her with the utmost eagerness. This 

 recollection of the habits of her former charge is not 

 a little curious." The second example was furnished 

 by a correspondent, Mrs. L. Macfarlane, of Glasgow. 

 " In this case," he says, " a hen had also reared three 

 successive broods of ducklings in successive years, and 

 then hatched out a brood of nine chickens. The season 

 being late, she was confined for some weeks till the 

 chickens became strong enough to face the cold weather. 

 Then, in the words of my correspondent, 'the first day 

 she was let out she disappeared, and after a long search 

 my sister found her beside a little stream which her 

 successive broods of ducklings had been in the habit of 

 frequenting. She had got four of her chickens into the 

 stream, which was fortunately very shallow at the time. 

 The other five were all standing on its margin, and she 



* " Mental Evolution in Animals," p. 215. 



