INSTINCT IN ANIMALS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2516, 25 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

INSTINCT IN ANIMALS.

Instinct is strongly hereditary in animals, even under the most unfavorable conditions. Ducklings hatched by a hen take to water immediately on breaking their shell. If the eggs of the wild duck be placed under one of the domesticated species, the young, when their feathers are complete, immediately take to the wing. Birds hatched in confinement

construct in their cages the same kind of nest as their more fortunate brethern of the same species build in tlis virgin forest. The domesticated dog, even when thoroughly well-cared for, is very fond of burying a bono in some secret spot—a lingering trace, probably, of the time when he ran wild in the woods, and the secreting of surplus food for a future occasion was a matter of practical importance to him. When the squirrel is reared in conQnemont, it stores away in a

corner of its cage a portion of the nuts supplied to it, an iustinetive preparation for the coming winter, unnecessary, indeed, for this individual squirrel, but highly important for its ancestors and congeners living in the wild state. Everyone must have observed how difficult it is to make a common ass leap over a stream, however small. This unwillingness is not the result of an inherent incapacity for jumping, as the ass leaps over other obstacles with ease, while it hesitates obstinately at the tiniest streamlet. We have here, in all probability, a remnant of an instinct dating far back to the time when the ancestors of the ass were exclusively desert animals, and so unaccustomed to the sight of running water as to be confused and terrified by it. If any one observes a field of lambs at play, he will notice with what delight they frisk round hillock within their reach. Here we have probably a tracc of the time when the progenitors of our sheep were Alpine animals, and possessed the habits of the chamois.