Chap. vm. Changes of Habit or Instinct. 209 



not more fearful than small ; and the magpie, so wary in England, 

 is tame in Norway, as is the hooded crow in Egypt. 



That the mental qualities of animals of the same kind, born in a 

 state of nature, vary much, could be shown by many facts. Several 

 cases could also be adduced of occasional and strange habits in 

 wild animals, which, if advantageous to the species, might have 

 given rise, through natural selection, to new instincts. But I am 

 well aware that these general statements, without the facts in 

 detail, will produce but a feeble effect on the reader's mind. I 

 can only repeat my assurance, that I do not speak without good 

 evidence. 



Inherited Changes of Habit or Instinct in Domesticated 



Animals. 



The possibility, or even probability, of inherited variations of 

 instinct in a state of nature will be strengthened by briefly consider- 

 ing a few cases under domestication. We shall thus be enabled to 

 see the part which habit and the selection of so-called spontaneous 

 variations have played in modifying the mental qualities of our 

 domestic animals. It is notorious how much domestic animals vary 

 in their mental qualities. With cats, for instance, one naturally 

 takes to catching rats, and another mice, and these tendencies are 

 known to be inherited. One cat, according to Mr. St. John, always 

 brought home game-birds, another hares or rabbits, and another 

 hunted 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 dog : 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, 

 performed 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 



p 



