174 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



much more probable, prima Jacic, that the change 

 which has rendered any inbred habit inoperative 

 has taken place, not in the instinct itself, but in 

 some detail in the bodily structure or in the ex- 

 ternal environment. In the example given by 

 Mr Hudson this seems clearly to be the case, 

 for we must remember that in the wild state the 

 sheep has no tufts of wool hanging about its 

 flanks or belly, and that therefore the udder, 

 with its inviting teats, is the first thing that pre- 

 sents itself to the investigating muzzle of the lamb. 

 Civilisation has shortened the ewe's leo:s, and in 

 this way also has interfered with nature's adjust- 

 ment between dam and offspring, and has made 

 the source of nutriment more difficult to discover. 

 But here the fault clearly does not lie with the 

 lamb, which probably acts in precisely the same 

 manner as did the lambs hundreds of thousands 

 of years ago. In the same way the habit of fol- 

 lowing a horseman or a large bunch of pampas 

 grass blown by the wind, to which Mr Hudson 

 and other writers allude, may be explained by 

 changed environment rather than by the develop- 

 ment of a new and pernicious instinct. Doubtless 

 on the tops of the Corsican or Thibetan moun- 

 tains pampas grass and horsemen were as rare 



