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Show 50 THE DESCENT OF MAN. PARl'L pursued, they exhibit, according to the unanimous testimony of all observers, an almost incredible amount of sagacity, caution, and cunning ; but trapping has been there so long carried on that inheritance may have come into play. If we look to successive generations, or to the race, there is no doubt that birds and other animals gradually both acquire and lose caution in relation to man or other enemies ; 19 and this caution is certainly in chief part an inherited habit or instinct, but in part the result of individual experience. A good observer, Leroy,00 states that in districts where foxes are much hunted, the young when they first leave their burrows are incontestably much more wary than the old ones in districts where they are not much disturbed. Our domestic dogs are descended from wolves and jackals,21 and though they may not have gained in cunning, and may have lost in waryness and suspicion, yet they have progressed in certain moral qualities, such as in affection, trust-worthiness, temper, and probably in general intelligence. The common rat has conquered and beaten several other species throughout Europe, in parts of North America, New Zealand, and recently in Formosa, as well as on the mainland of China. Mr. Swinhoe,22 who describes these latter cases, attributes the victory of the common rat over the large Mus coninga to its superior cunning; and this latter quality may be attributed to the habitual exercise of all its faculties in avoiding extirpation by man, as wel1 19 ' J ourn~l ?f Researc~es during the Voyage of the " Beagle,"' 1845, p. 398. ' Ongm of Spec1es,' 5th edit. p. 260. 20 'Lettres Phil. sur !'Intelligence des Animaux,' nouvelle edit. 1802, p. 86. 21 ~ee the evidence on this head in chap. i. vol. i. 'On the Variation of Aruma.ls and Plants under Domestication.' 2 ~ 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' 1864, p. 186. CHAP. II. l\IENTAL POWERS. 5.1 as to nearly all the less cunning or weak-minded rats having been successively destroyed by him. To maintain, independently of any direct evidence, that no animal during the course of ages has progressed in intellect or other mental faculties, is to beg the question of the evolution of species. Hereafter we shall see that, according to Lartet, existing mammals belonging to several orders have larger brains than their ancient tertiary prototypes. It has often been said that no animal uses any tool; but the chimpanzee in a state of nature cracks a native fruit, somewhat like a walnut, with a stone.23 Rengger 24 easily taught a:ri American monkey thus to break open hard palm-nuts, and afterwards of its own accord it used stones to open other kinds of nuts, as well as boxes. It thus also removed the soft rind of fruit that had a disagreeable flavour. Another monkey was tanght to open the lid of a large box with a stick, and afterwards it used the stick as a lever to move heavy bodies; and I have myself seen a young orang put a stick into a crevice, slip his hand to the other end, and use it in the proper manner as a lever. In the cases just mentioned stones and sticks were employed as implements; but they are likewise used as weapons. Brehm 2:. states, on the authority of the well-known traveller Schimper, that in Abyssinia when the baboons belonging to one species ( 0. gelada) descend in troops from the mountains to plunder the fields, they sometimes eneormter troops of another species ( 0. hamadryas ), and -then a fight ensues. 'fhe Geladas roll down great stones, which the Hamadryas try to avoid, and then both species-, 23 Savage and Wyman in 'Boston Journal of Nat. Hist.' vol. iv. 1843-44, p. 383. 24 'Siiugethiere von Paraguay,' 1830, s. 51-56. 25 ''rhierlebcn,' B. i. s. 79, 82. E 2 |