The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-03 00:00:00

THE INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS.

(From the Friends' Review.)
To whatever part of the creation which surrounds
is we direct our attention, whether to its physical
or to its intellectual order and.organisation, we still
find ourselves overwhelmed with wonders, all in-
dicating the wisdom and benevolence of their Au-
thor ; all tending to promote the happiness of the
various races of animated nature. Among these
wonders, the instincts with which these different
races are, in various relations and degrees, imbued
are not the least.
Jacob Taylor, a Chester county almanac-maker,
near the beginning of the 18th century, the county
being then nearly a frontier settlement, tells a story
of a flock of deer which occupied an island not
otherwise inhabited. A herd of our domestic cattle
were introduced into the island, but their presence
gave no alarm to the deer. The bellowing of the
bulls, however formidable it might seem to ears
unaccustomed to the sound, did not in any degree
disturb the tranquillity of the previous occupants
of the soil. But at length a dog found its way to
the island, on which the deer immediately took the
alarm, and fled with precipitation. Why, then, in-
quires the almanac-maker, of a supposed philoso-
phical friend, who is represented as present, were
the deer so intimidated by the sight of a dog, al-
though they remained undisturbed by the presence
of animals apparently so much more formidable
The philosopher answers that there is a sympathy
between all ruminating animalsto prevent hostility
or the fear of hostility from each other. The
almanac-maker, while seemingly assenting to the
correctness of the explanation, shrewdly suggests a
a wonder, in which, no doubt, some of our readers
may partake, how the deer could discover that the
dog did not chew the cud as well as themselves.
The sober truth seems to be—and here the wisdom
and benevolence of the Creator are manifested—
that those animals, whether ruminating or not,
which live exclusively on vegetable food, manifest,
while in their native state, no sign of hostility or
fear of hostility towards each other. The deer
manifests no more fear of a horse than of an ox.
At the same.time, these herbivorous animals ap-
pear, independently of experience or education, to
entertain an instinctive perception that an enemy
lurks in the carnivorous races. They, therefore,
naturally flee from them.
The poet Cowper, in his account of the treat-
ment of his tame hares, informs us that he intro-
duced to the acquaintance of each other a hare and
a spaniel, with a view of ascertaining wiaether there
was any natural hostility between the races to
which they respectively belonged. The experiment
was made with great caution ; and as the hare
manifested no sign of fear, and the spaniel no
symptoms of hostility, he concluded that the appa-
rent antipathy between the dog and the hare is
artificial, not natural. The dog, he says, pursues
because he is taught so to do, and the hare flees
because he is pursued.
If Cowper had been as shrewd a philosopher as
he was interesting as a poet, he would probably
have discerned that his experiment was made under
circumstances highly artificial, and could, there•
fore, lead to no reliable conclusion with regard to
the result of such an acquaintance, if formed in the
forest, beyond the influence of man. The hare,
nursed and protected as it had been by Cowper,
had unquestionably lost much of its vigilant in-
stinctive dread, and consequently was not likely
to be alarmed when no hostility appeared. The
dog, educated altogether as a domestic animal,
had, no doubt, been always accustomed to look to
his master fur his daily food, and had probably
never been subjected to the necessity of acting as
his own butcher. It was, therefore, highly unna-
tural and improbable that he should commence a
new trade till impelled by hunger. The dog and
the hare were therefore partially educated for
peaceful acquaintand before they saw each other.
That the dog, in his natural state, is exclusively
a carnivorous animal will probably not be denied.
The dog and the wolf are so similar in their nature
that the latter, while running in his native forest,
may be justly regarded as the type of the former,
with similar propensities, and depending for sup-
port on similar means. Gedlnan, in his Natti,v/
History, has produced evidence, which can hardly
be disputed, that the dog and the wolf are,
properly speaking, varieties of the same spec:A, not
animals of different races. Their mutual progeny
difiers in one essential characteristic from all by brid
animals that are known—it is not marked with
sterility.
The'innocent sheep appears the especial victim
of the wolf, and the depredations sometime:; made
on the sheep.-fold by domestic dogs furnish evidence
that it is education, not nature, which prevents the.
dog from more frequently glutting his appetite
with the flesh and blood of the lamb. IndeA, of
all the domestic animals, the dog stands con: picu-
ous, and comparatively alone, for the change
effected by education in his h Cutts and propen ,;tied.
Though, from his affinity to the wolf, the Limb
would appear to be his epecial fool, yet wo often
find him transformed by education to be the 'nest
efficient assistant to the shepherd in the protection
of his flock. The shepherd's dog, in particular,
furnishes a -moet reliable protector, either by day
or by night, of the flock entrusted to his charge.
A strange dog that may venture within his d nuaie
is pretty sure to pay for his temeri.y by the loss of
his life.
So susceptible, indeed, is the dog of change of
habit fromeducation, that he isactually transformed
from a carnivorous animal to one dependent en' irely
upon vegetable food. In tire Highlands of Scot-
land tire dog and his master live alike upon oat-
meal, prepared in the same manner, and eaten out
of the same vessel. Among all the races that are
susceptible to domestication, as well as among
those that are never subjected to the dominion of
man, it is curious anal interesting to observe how
their instincts are blended in some degree a ith a
species of ratiocination. The herbiverous animals
appear, as already observed, independently of ex-
perience, to discover enemies in the carnivorous
races ; and the latter do not seem to require educa.
tion or instruction in the selection of their prey.
But we often find, strangely mingled with these
instinctive perceptions, means resorted to for escape
from danger, or expedients for securing their prey,
which can scarcely be accounted for otherwise than
by the employment of the reasoning faculty. Why
does the hound, when he falls on the scent of his
prey, if he happens to make a retrograde move-
ment, immediately abandon it and pursue the
proper course, but because the scent, if followed
in a backward direction, grows fainter at every
jump, thus indicating to a reasoning animal a
greater lapse of time since the scent was impressed
on the ground.
The dog is only one among a countless number
that may be justly reckoned, in some measure rea-
soning animals. The elephant, in particular, so
frequently exhibits evidence of the combining and
comparing power that even Pope, with all his pro-
pensity to draw a strong line between reason and
instinct, assigns to the elephant the character of
a half-reasoning animal. The following anecdote
which I have read, though I cannot recal my
authority, seems to prove that this interesting
animal is not only capable of ratiocination, but also
of ingenious contrivance. An elephant, whose
chain did not allow him the full range of his
prison-house, was thrown a piece of money,
which happened to rest at some distance within the
wall of his prison, but beyond the reach of his
chain. The sagacious animal directing his trunk
to a part of the wall immediately beyond where
the piece of money lay, blew a strong blast, which
by its recoil, poured a current of air directly over
the part of the floor where the money lay, and this
current immediately drove the coin within the
reach of his chain.
The following anecdote, from Instinct Displayed
plainly indicates the exercise of the reasoning fa-
culty by an animal not usually supposed to
superior sagacity :
Two goats, grazing about the ramparts of Ply-
mouth citadel, got drawn upon the narrow ledge
of the rock, and ono of them, advancing before the
other till it came to an angle, was enabled to return
but on its way back, met its companion, eehid:
produced a perplexing dilemma, as it was impossible
for them to get past each other. Many persons
saw them without being able to lend any assist.
ance. After a considerable time, one of the goats
was observed to kneel down with great caution,
and crouch as close as it could lie, which was no
sooner done than the other with great dexterity,
walked over it, and they both returned to the way
they came in perfect safety. And at Ardinglass, in
Ireland, two goats moving towards each other, over
a precipice one thousand feet high, on a narrow
ledge of the rock,- wore seen to extricate them-
selves from danger by a similar expedient.
some of the instincts and propensities of the
animal races are curiously moulded and improved
by the education bestowed by man, it is inn rest-
ing to observe how other instincts or the inferences
drawn from them by the exercise of a reasoning
some faculty, are, in
domestication. From others almost annihilated by
innocent
been, regarded as the
type of unresisting
and patients suffering.ee. So
destitute,' indeed, does the
domestic condition, appear rla
ca,capacity its
inclination to resist, by any combined efforts,i the
or
assaults of the carnivorous racep, that it has been
assumed by Buffon that the whole race must long
ago have perished from the earth if it had not been
taken under the protection of man. A little ac.
quaintance with the subject, however, must con-
vince us that this conclusion has been too hastily
drawn. Dr. Haneock, in his " Essay on Instinct,"
informs us that a .sheep in a wild state manifests a
strong propensity to associate for mutual defence.