326 CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT [Chap. VHL 



on marshy ground and almost nightly caught woodcocks 

 or snipes. A number of curious and authentic instances 

 could be given of various shades of disposition and of taste, 

 and likewise of the oddest tricks, associated with certain 

 frames of mind or periods of time, being inherited. But 

 let us look to the familiar case of the breeds of the dogs : 

 it cannot be doubted that young pointers (I have myself 

 seen a striking instance) will sometimes point and even 

 back other dogs the very first time that they are taken 

 out ; retrieving is certainly in some degree inherited by 

 retrievers ; and a tendency to run round, instead of at, 

 a flock of sheep, by shepherd dogs. I cannot see that 

 these actions, performed without experience by the young, 

 and in nearly the same manner by each individual, per- 

 formed with eager delight by each breed, and without 

 the end being known — for the young pointer can no 

 more know that he points to aid his master, than 

 the white butterfly knows why she lays her eggs on the 

 leaf of the cabbage — I cannot see that these actions differ 

 essentially from true instincts. If we were to behold one 

 kind of wolf, when young and without any training, as 

 soon as it scented its prey, stand motionless like a statue, 

 and then slowly crawl forward with a peculiar gait ; and 

 another kind of wolf rushing round, instead of at, a herd 

 of deer, and driving them to a distant point, we should 

 assuredly call these actions instinctive. Domestic 

 instincts, as they may be called, are certainly far less 

 fixed than natural instincts ; but they have been acted 

 on by far less rigorous selection, and have been trans- 

 mitted for an incomparably shorter period, under less 

 fixed conditions of life. 



How strongly these domestic instincts, habits, and 

 dispositions are inherited, and how curiously they 



