296 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



his confident bearing, because almost all animals, 

 however stupid, are able to judge the difference 

 between the outward signs of courage and those 

 of fear. And courage, we must recollect, is, in 

 nature's utilitarian regime, almost invariably the 

 mark of superior physical qualities. If this 

 were not so, courage would prove a destructive 

 rather than a preservative agent, for it would 

 constantly lead its possessors into strife where 

 there was no chance of victory, and into other 

 dangers involving death or injuries for which 

 there was no compensation. Possibly the con- 

 fidence shown by domestic animals in human 

 protection is partly based upon the awe which 

 they themselves have of the human species, and 

 is not altogether owing directly to the economic 

 and automatic law which dispenses with every 

 unnecessary attribute. This is a subject which 

 is well worthy the attention of any naturalist 

 who has a bent for comparative psychology. 

 Certainly, when we take into account the ex- 

 traordinarily stable and permanent character of 

 most instincts and like nervous phenomena, it 

 does seem strange that a few generations of 

 domestication should so completely alter the 

 mental habits of many of our familiar birds. 



