1/2 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



from them. A new-born lamb will rush after 

 a newspaper or any other large and light-coloured 

 object blown along by the wind, or, as Mr Hud- 

 son says in ' The Naturalist in La Plata,' they 

 will persistently gallop after a horseman on the 

 pampas. It is the old and most necessary in- 

 stinct of following the flock when it was fleeing 

 from an enemy, but the instinct is at fault in 

 civilised regions. Mr Hudson, when speaking 

 of the habits of sheep in La Plata, alludes to 

 what he considers to be defective instinct in 

 lambs due to long domestication. 1 will quote 

 the passage in full, because I think another in- 

 terpretation may be attempted : — 



I have frequently observed newly-born lambs on the 

 pampas, and have never failed to be surprised at the 

 extreme imbecility they display in their actions, al- 

 though this may be due partly to inherited degeneracy 

 caused by domestication. This imbecile condition con- 

 tinues for two, sometimes for three days, during which 

 time the lamb apparently acts purely from instincts, 

 which are far from perfect ; but after that, experience 

 and its dam teach it a better way. When born, its first 

 impulse is to struggle up on to its feet ; its second, to 

 suck — but here it does not discriminate like the newly- 

 hatched bird that picks up its proper food, for it does 

 not know what to suck. It will take into its mouth 

 whatever comes near, in most cases a tuft of wool on its 



