it is strengthened by experience, and by the sight of fear of the same
enemy in other animals. The fear of man is slowly acquired, as I have
elsewhere shown, by the various animals which inhabit desert islands; and
we see an instance of this, even in England, in the greater wildness of all
our large birds in comparison with 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 mental qualities of animals of the same kind, born in a state of
nature, vary much, could be shown by many facts. Several cases could also
be adduced 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 the facts 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.

INHERITED CHANGES OF HABIT OR INSTINCT IN DOMESTICATED ANIMALS.

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 part which
habit and the selection of so-called spontaneous 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