| → terrier. 1859 |
| terrier: the act of pointing is probably, as many have thought, only the exaggerated pause of an animal preparing to spring on its prey. 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
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| → was 1859 |
| to point was 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
|
|
are inherited, and how curiously they become mingled, is well shown when different breeds of dogs are crossed. Thus it is known that a cross with a bull-dog has affected for many generations the courage and obstinacy of greyhounds; and a cross with a greyhound has given to a whole family of shepherd-dogs a tendency to hunt hares. These domestic instincts, when thus tested by crossing, resemble natural instincts, which in a like manner become curiously blended
and for a long period exhibit traces of the instincts of either parent: for example, Le Roy describes a dog, whose great-grandfather was a wolf, and this dog showed a trace of its wild parentage only in one way, by not coming in a straight line to his
when called. |
|
| Domestic instincts are sometimes spoken of as actions which have become inherited solely from long-continued and compulsory
but
is not true. No one would ever have thought of teaching, or probably could have taught, the tumbler-pigeon to tumble,— an action which, as I have witnessed, is performed by young birds, that have never seen a pigeon tumble. We may believe that some one pigeon showed a slight tendency to this strange habit, and that the long-continued selection of the best individuals in successive generations made tumblers what they now are; and near Glasgow there are house-tumblers, as I hear from Mr. Brent, which cannot fly eighteen inches high without going head over heels. It may be doubted whether any one would have thought of training a dog to point, had not some one dog naturally shown a tendency in this line; and this is known occasionally to happen, as I once
in a pure
→terrier. When the first tendency
→was
once displayed, methodical selection and the inherited effects of compulsory training in each successive generation would soon complete the work; and unconscious
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