On the habits and instincts of animals / By William Swainson.

  • William Swainson
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the habits and instincts of animals / By William Swainson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the patriarchs in their journeys, four thousand years ago, was not less intelligent than those of the present day; and the dogs of Nimrod were, probably, as far advanced in civilisation as those possessed by our modern hunters. The wild ass of Scripture——which was, probably, the zebra—is still the same untameable inhabitant of the desert ; and all the efforts of man to make him obedient to the curb have been utterly fruitless. The hen does not discriminate between a real and an artificial egg ; and the tomtit will still go on building her nest in the same hole, after it has been destroyed four or five times.* These, and a thousand similar instances, may be cited, to illustrate what we have just advanced. (11.) But, it may be said, instinct is improveable by what is called domestication. And when we hear of learned pigs, birds firing cannon, and tigers becoming tame as kittens, who shall determine how far such in- telligence may be carried? True; but we may ask, again, are these acquired faculties, unnatural as they’ certainly are, transmitted ? Are they not the effect of a long, and often inhuman, training ? and do they not perish with the possessor? The extent of cultivated Instinct, as we may properly term all these acquired habits, is only to be known by experiments; and these have been carried sufficiently far, as to convince us that the faculties thus called forth, do not trench upon any one of those prerogatives which, we shall hereafter show, belong to Reason. In a former volume, we esta- blished the fact that a uniform aptitude for domestica- tion is not spread over the whole of the higher animals; but that, on the contrary, it has been more especially granted to such as Infinite Wisdom has set apart for the service, or the sustenance, of Man. He may, in- deed, arrogantly vaunt that, in training such to his use, he conquers nature; but the boast is not only idle, but absolutely groundless, He does no more than bring out latent qualities, planted by another and an Al- mighty Hand, One might be tempted, therefore, to imagine that those animals would always exhibit the . * See Classification of Birds,
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