Chap. VII. DOMESTIC INSTINCTS. 213 



domestication. We shall thus also be enabled to see 

 the respective parts which habit and the selection of so- 

 called accidental variations have played in modifying 

 the mental qualities of our domestic animals. A number 

 of curious and authentic instances could be given of 

 the inheritance of all shades of disposition and tastes, 

 and likewise of the oddest tricks, associated with certain 

 frames of mind or periods of time. But let us look to 

 the familiar case of the several breeds of 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 indi- 

 vidual, 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 see one kind of wolf, when young and without 

 any training, as soon as it scented its prey, stand motion- 

 less 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 in- 

 stinctive. Domestic instincts, as they may be called, 

 are certainly far less fixed or invariable than natural 

 instincts ; but they have been acted on by far less rigor- 

 ous selection, and have been transmitted for an incom- 

 parably shorter period, under less fixed conditions of life. 

 How strongly these domestic instincts, habits, and dis- 



