|
→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
and likewise of the oddest tricks, associated with certain frames of mind or periods of
→time. But let us look to the
case of the
breeds of
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 individual, performed with eager delight by each breed, and without the end being
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
I cannot see
these actions differ essentially from true instincts. If we were to
one kind of wolf, when young and without any training, as soon as it scented its prey, stand motionless 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 instinctive. Domestic instincts, as they may be called, are certainly far less fixed
than natural instincts; but they have been acted on by far less rigorous selection, and have been transmitted for an incomparably shorter period, under less fixed conditions of life. |
