Fear of any particular enemy is
certainly an instinctive quality, as may be seen in nestling birds,
though it is strengthened by experience, and by the sight of fear of
the same enemy in other animals. But fear of man is slowly acquired,
as I have elsewhere shown, by various animals inhabiting desert
islands; and we may see an instance of this, even in England, in the
greater wildness of all our large birds than of our small birds; for
the large birds have been most persecuted by man. We may safely
attribute the greater wildness of our large birds to this cause; for
in uninhabited islands large birds are not more fearful than small;
and the magpie, so wary in England, is tame in Norway, as is the
hooded crow in Egypt.
That the general disposition of individuals of the same species, born
in a state of nature, is extremely diversified, can be shown by a
multitude of facts. Several cases also, could be given, of occasional
and strange habits in certain species, which might, if advantageous to
the species, give rise, through natural selection, to quite new
instincts. But I am well aware that these general statements, without
facts given in detail, can produce but a feeble effect on the reader's
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.
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