328 CHANGES OP HABIT OR INSTINCT [Chap. VIIL 



have thought, only the exaggerated pause of an animal 

 preparing to spring on its prey. When the first tendency 

 to point was once displayed, methodical selection and 

 the inherited effects of compulsory training in each suc- 

 cessive generation would soon complete the work; and 

 unconscious selection is still in progress, as each man 

 tries to procure, without intending to improve the hreed, 

 dogs which stand and hunt best. On the other hand, 

 habit alone in some cases has sufficed; hardly any ani- 

 mal is more difficult to tame than the young of the wild 

 rabbit; scarcely any animal is tamer than the young 

 of the tame rabbit; but I can hardly suppose that do- 

 mestic rabbits have often been selected for tameness 

 alone; so that we must attribute at least the greater 

 part of the inherited change from extreme wildness to 

 extreme tameness, to habit and long-continued close 

 confinement. 



Natural instincts are lost under domestication: a 

 remarkable instance of this is seen in those breeds of 

 fowls which very rarely or never become "broody," 

 that is, never wish to sit on their eggs. Familiarity 

 alone prevents our seeing how largely and how perma- 

 nently the minds of our domestic animals have been 

 modified. It is scarcely possible to doubt that the love 

 of man has become instinctive in the dog. All wolves, 

 foxes, jackals, and species of the eat genus, when kept 

 tame, are most eager to attack poultry, sheep, and pigs; 

 and this tendency has been found incurable in dogs 

 which have been brought home as puppies from coun- 

 tries such as Tierra del Fuego and Australia, where the 

 savages do not keep these domestic animals. How 

 rarely, on the other hand, do our civilised dogs, even 

 when quite young, require to be taught not to attack 



