326 CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT [Chap. VIll 



herited. 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 inheritedl 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 cer- 

 tainly in some degree inherited by retrievers; and a ten- 

 dency to run round, instead of at, a flock of sheep, by 

 shepherd dogs. I cannot see that these actions, per- 

 formed 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 theyoungpointer 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 in- 

 stincts; but they have been acted on by far less rigorous 

 selection, and have been transmitted for an incompar- 

 ably shorter period, under less fixed conditions of life. 



