Chap. VII. 
DOMESTIC INSTINCTS. 
213 
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 difter 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¬ 
positions are inherited, and how curiously they become 
mingled, is well shown when different breeds of dogs are 
