hunted on marshy ground and almost nightly caught woodcocks or snipes. A
number of curious and authentic instances could be given of various shades
of disposition and taste, 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 breeds of dogs: it cannot be doubted that young
pointers (I have myself seen striking instances) 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 behold 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. Domestic instincts, as
they may be called, are certainly far less fixed than natural instincts;
but they have been acted on by far less rigorous selection, and have been
transmitted for an incomparably shorter period, under less fixed conditions
of life.

How strongly these domestic instincts, habits, and dispositions are
inherited, and how curiously they become mingled, is well shown when
different breeds of dogs are crossed. Thus it is known that a cross with a
bull-dog has affected for many generations the courage and obstinacy of
greyhounds; and a cross with a greyhound has given to a whole family of