| That the
→mental qualities of animals
of the same
born in a state of nature,
→vary much, could
be shown by
→many
facts. Several
be
of occasional and strange habits in
→wild animals, which,
if advantageous to the species,
→might have given
rise, through natural selection, to
new instincts. But I am well aware that these general statements, without
in detail,
produce but a feeble effect on the
mind. I can only repeat my assurance, that I do not speak without good evidence. |
| The possibility, or even probability, of inherited variations of instinct in a state of nature will be strengthened by briefly considering a few cases under domestication. We shall thus
be enabled to see the
which habit and the selection of
→variations
have played in modifying the mental qualities of our domestic animals. It is notorious how much domestic animals vary in their mental qualities. With cats, for instance, one naturally takes to catching rats, and another mice, and these tendencies are known to be inherited. One cat, according to Mr. St. John, always brought home game-birds, another hares or rabbits, and another hunted on marshy ground and almost nightly caught woodcocks or snipes. A number of curious and authentic instances could be given of
→various
shades of disposition and
and likewise of the oddest tricks, associated with certain frames of mind or periods of
→time, being inherited. 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
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