We shall thus also be
enabled to see the respective parts which habit and the selection of
so-called accidental 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 tastes, and likewise of the oddest tricks, associated
with certain frames of mind or periods of time. But let us look to the
familiar case of the several breeds of dogs: 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 known,--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 cabbage,--I cannot see that these actions
differ essentially from true instincts. If we were to see 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.
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