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Show 214 INSTINCT. CHAP. VII. ositions are inherited, and how curiously they become P . 1 d . 11 shonrn when different breeds of dogs are ming e ' IS we n.u • bull d d Thus it is known that a cross with a - og crosse . d b t" has affected for many generations th~ courage an o s I-nacy of greyh ounds '· and a cross with a greyhound has given to a whole family of shepherd-dogs a tendency to h t h ·es. These domestic instincts, when thus tested byu nc rosasri ng, resemble natural instincts, wh I'C h m. a l"Ilr e manner become curiously blended together, and for a long period exhibit traces of the i~stincts of either parent: for example, Le Roy describes a dog, whose great-grandfather was a wolf, an~ this dog showed a trace of its wild parentage only In one way, by not coming in a straight line to his .master when called. . Domestic instincts are sometimes spoken of as actwns which have become inherited solely from long-continued and compulsory habit, but this, I think, 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 shgh~ tendency to this strange habit, and that the long-contin?ed 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 po~nt, ~ad. not some one dog naturally shown a tendency In this hne; and this is known occasionally to happen, as I once saw in a pure terrier. When the first tend~ncy _was once displayed, methodical selection and the ~nhented effects of compulsory training in each successive g~neration would soon complete the work; and unconscwus CHAP. VII. DOMESTIC INSTINCTS. 215 se.l ection. is stil.l at work ' as each man t n.e s t o procure without Intending to improve the breed, dogs which wili s. tand and hunt best. On the other hand, h a bI't a1 o ne In some cases has sufficed ; no animal is more difficult to tam.e than the young of the wild rabbit. 1 1 . , scarce y any anima Is tamer than the young of the tame rabbit . but I do not suppose that domestic rabbits have eve; been sel~cted for tameness ; and I presume that we must attn~ute the whole of the inherited change from extreme wild~ess to extreme tameness, simply to habit and long-continued close confinement. Natural instincts are lost under domesticati'on . k bl . . are-mar a e. Instance of this is seen in those breeds of fowls whiCh very rarely or never become " b d " th t . . . roo y, a Is, never Wish to .sit on their eggs. Familiarity alone prevents our seemg how universally and largely the minds. of ?ur domestic animals have been modified by domestiCation. It is scarcely possible to doubt that the love of ma:n has become instinctive in the dog. All wolves, foxes, Jackals, and species of the cat genus, when k~pt tame, ar~ most eager to attack poultry, sheep, and pigs ; a~d this tendency has been found incurable in dogs ~hich have been brought home as puppies from countnes, such as Tierra del Fuego and Australia, where the savages do not keep these domestic animals. How rarely, o~ the other hand, do our civilised dogs even when qmt e young, requr·r e to be taught not to 'a ttack xoultry, sheep, and pigs 1 No doubt they occasionally o make an attack, and are then beaten; and if not cured, they are destroyed; so that habit with s degr.e e of. se 1e cti·o n, h as probably concurred ' in civilisoirnn e by. Inheritance our dogs. On the other hand oun g chidckens have lost, wholly by habit, that fear of't{e dogg tahn ca. t which no d ou b t was on·g m. ally m. stinctive in em, m the same way as it is so plainly instinctive in |