§ III. <ON VARIATION IN INSTINCTS AND OTHER MENTAL ATTRIBUTES.>
The mental powers of different animals in wild and tame state [present still greater difficulties] require a separate section. Be it remembered I have nothing to do with origin of memory, attention, and the different faculties of the mind{ 88}, but merely with their differences in each of the great divisions of nature. Disposition, courage, pertinacity <?>, suspicion, restlessness, ill-temper, sagacity and <the> reverse unquestionably vary in animals and are inherited (Cuba wildness dogs, rabbits, fear against particular object as man Galapagos{ 89}). Habits purely corporeal, breeding season &c., time of going to rest &c., vary and are hereditary, like the analogous habits of plants which vary and are inherited. Habits of body, as manner of movement d^o. and d^o. Habits, as pointing and setting on certain occasions d^o. Taste for hunting certain objects and manner of doing so,--sheep-dog. These are shown clearly by crossing and their analogy with true instinct thus shown,--retriever. Do not know objects for which they do it. Lord Brougham's definition{ 90}. Origin partly habit, but the amount necessarily unknown, partly selection. Young pointers pointing stones and sheep--tumbling pigeons--sheep{ 91} going back to place where born. Instinct aided by reason, as in the taylor-bird{ 92}. Taught by parents, cows choosing food, birds singing. Instincts vary in wild state (birds get wilder) often lost{ 93}; more perfect,--nest without roof. These facts [only clear way] show how incomprehensibly brain has power of transmitting intellectual operations.
{ 88} The same proviso occurs in the _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 207, vi. p. 319.
{ 89} The tameness of the birds in the Galapagos is described in the _Journal of Researches_ (1860), p. 398. Dogs and rabbits are probably mentioned as cases in which the hereditary fear of man has been lost. In the 1844 MS. the author states that the Cuban feral dog shows great natural wildness, even when caught quite young.
{ 90} In the _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 207, vi. p. 319, he refuses to define instinct. For Lord Brougham's definition see his _Dissertations on Subjects of Science etc._, 1839, p. 27.