368 
MR. KNIGHT ON THE HEREDITARY INSTINCTIVE 
been brought to me from a distant county. I had walked up the side of the river 
which passes by my house in search of Wild Ducks, when the dog above mentioned 
followed me unobserved, and contrary to my wishes, for it was too young for service, 
not being then quite ten months old. It had not received any other instruction than 
that of being taught to bring any floating body off a pond, and I do not think that it 
had ever done this more than three or four times. It walked very quietly behind my 
gamekeeper upon the opposite side of the river, and it looked on with apparent in- 
difference whilst I killed a couple of Mallards and a Widgeon, but it leaped into the 
river instantly upon the gamekeeper pointing out the birds to it, and it brought them 
on shore, and to the feet of the gamekeeper, just as well as the best instructed old 
dog could have done. I subsequently shot a Snipe, which fell into the middle of a 
large nearly stagnant pool of water, which was partially frozen over. I called the 
dog from the other side of the river and caused it to see the Snipe, which could not be 
done without difficulty : but as soon as it saw it, it swam to it, brought it to me, 
laid it down at my feet, and again swam through the river to my gamekeeper. I 
never saw a dog of any age acquit itself so well, yet it was most certainly wholly 
untaught. I state the circumstances with reluctance, and not without hesitation, 
because I doubt whether I could myself believe them to be well founded upon any 
other evidence than that of ray own senses : the statement is nevertheless most per- 
fectly correct. 
I could add an account of a great many more experiments and observations which 
were made with other varieties of dogs and upon other species of animals, but as all 
the facts which I have noticed are confirmations of the truth of the conclusions 
which I have drawn from those above stated, I shall state the result of one other ex- 
periment only, and that solely because it tends to establish a fact which appears to 
me to be of a good deal of importance. 
I stated in a communication to this Society many years ago, u upon the Compara- 
tive Influence of the Male and of the Female Parent upon the Offspring of some Spe- 
cies of Animals,” that in cases where nature intended the offspring to accompany its 
parent in flight at an early age, the influence of the parent of one sex upon the form of 
the offspring differed very widely from that of the other parent, and that when the fe- 
male parents were of small size and of a small breed, and of permanent habits, and the 
male of a large size and large breed, and of permanent habits, the length of the legs 
of the foetus were given by those of the family of the female parent. I imported some 
Norwegian Pony Mares with the intention of obtaining cross-bred animals between 
them and the London Dray Horse ; having satisfied myself that the experiment might 
be made without danger or injury to the smaller animal. The bodies and shoulders 
of the cross-bred animals which I have obtained are excessively deep, comparatively 
with the length of their legs, which remains unchanged, except that the joints, 
being greatly larger, on account of the greatly increased strength of the legs, and 
being of the same form, necessarily occupy a little more space. The strength of 
