We learn from Mr. Darwin, that in the Galapagos archipelago, placed directly under the equator, and nearly 600 miles west of the American continent, all the terrestrial birds, as the finches, doves, hawks, and others, are so tame, that they may be killed with a switch. One day, says this author, "a mocking bird alighted on the edge of a pitcher which I held in my hand, and began quietly to sip the water, and allowed me to lift it with the vessel from the ground." Yet formerly, when the first Europeans landed, and found no inhabitants in these islands, the birds were even tamer than now: already they are beginning to acquire that salutary dread of man which in countries long settled is natural even to young birds which have never received any injury. So in the Falkland Islands, both the birds and foxes are entirely without fear of man; whereas, in the adjoining mainland of South America, many of the same species of birds are extremely wild; for there they have for ages been persecuted by the natives.[822]
Dr. Richardson informs us, in his able history of the habits of the North American animals, that, "in the retired parts of the mountains where the hunters had seldom penetrated, there is no difficulty in approaching the Rocky Mountain sheep, which there exhibit the simplicity of character so remarkable in the domestic species; but where they have been often fired at, they are exceedingly wild, alarm their companions, on the approach of danger, by a hissing noise, and scale the rocks with a speed and agility that baffle pursuit."[823]
It is probable, therefore, that as man, in diffusing himself over the globe, has tamed many wild races, so, also, he has made many tame races wild. Had some of the larger carnivorous beasts, capable of scaling the rocks, made their way into the North American mountains before our hunters, a similar alteration in the instincts of the sheep would doubtless have been brought about.
Wild elephants domesticated in a few years.—No animal affords a more striking illustration of the principal points which I have been endeavouring to establish than the elephant; for, in the first place, the wonderful sagacity with which he accommodates himself to the society of man, and the new habits which he contracts, are not the result of time, nor of modifications produced in the course of many generations. These animals will breed in captivity, as is now ascertained, in opposition to the vulgar opinion of many modern naturalists, and in conformity to that of the ancients Ælian and Columella[824]: yet it has always been the custom, as the least expensive mode of obtaining them, to capture wild individuals in the forests, usually when full grown; and, in a few years after they are taken—sometimes, it is said, in the space of a few months—their education is completed.
Had the whole species been domesticated from an early period in the history of man, like the camel, their superior intelligence would, doubtless, have been attributed to their long and familiar intercourse with the lord of the creation; but we know that a few years is sufficient to bring about this wonderful change of habits; and although the same individual may continue to receive tuition for a century afterwards, yet it makes no farther progress in the general development of its faculties. Were it otherwise, indeed, the animal would soon deserve more than the poet's epithet of "half-reasoning."
From the authority of our countrymen employed in the late Burmese war, it appears, in corroboration of older accounts, that when elephants are required to execute extraordinary tasks, they may be made to understand that they will receive unusual rewards. Some favourite dainty is shown to them, in the hope of acquiring which the work is done; and so perfectly does the nature of the contract appear to be understood, that the breach of it, on the part of the master, is often attended with danger. In this case, a power has been given to the species to adapt their social instincts to new circumstances with surprising rapidity; but the extent of this change is defined by strict and arbitrary limits. There is no indication of a tendency to continued divergence from certain attributes with which the elephant was originally endued—no ground whatever for anticipating that, in thousands of centuries, any material alteration could ever be effected. All that we can infer from analogy is, that some more useful and peculiar races might probably be formed, if the experiment were fairly tried; and that some individual characteristic, now only casual and temporary, might be perpetuated by generation.
In all cases, therefore, where the domestic qualities exist in animals, they seem to require no lengthened process for their developement; and they appear to have been wholly denied to some classes, which, from their strength and social disposition, might have rendered great services to man; as, for example, the greater part of the quadrumana. The orang-outang, indeed, which, for its resemblance in form to man, and apparently for no other good reason, has been assumed by Lamarck to be the most perfect of the inferior animals, has been tamed by the savages of Borneo, and made to climb lofty trees, and to bring down the fruit. But he is said to yield to his masters an unwilling obedience, and to be held in subjection only by severe discipline. We know nothing of the faculties of this animal which can suggest the idea that it rivals the elephant in intelligence; much less anything which can countenance the dreams of those who have fancied that it might have been transmuted into the "dominant race." One of the baboons of Sumatra (Simia carpolegus) appears to be more docile, and is frequently trained by the inhabitants to ascend trees, for the purpose of gathering cocoa-nuts; a service in which the animal is very expert. He selects, says Sir Stamford Raffles, the ripe nuts, with great judgment, and pulls no more than he is ordered.[825] The capuchin and cacajao monkeys are, according to Humboldt, taught to ascend trees in the same manner, and to throw down fruit on the banks of the lower Orinoco.[826]
It is for the Lamarckians to explain how it happens that those same savages of Borneo have not themselves acquired, by dint of longing, for many generations, for the power of climbing trees, the elongated arms of the ourang, or even the prehensile tails of some American monkeys: Instead of being reduced to the necessity of subjugating stubborn and untractable brutes, we should naturally have anticipated "that their wants would have excited them to efforts, and that continued efforts would have given rise to new organs;" or rather to the re-acquisition of organs which, in a manner irreconcileable with the principle of the progressive system, have grown obsolete in tribes of men which have such constant need of them.
Recapitulation.—It follows, then, from the different facts which have been considered in this chapter, that a short period of time is generally sufficient to effect nearly the whole change which an alteration of external circumstances can bring about in the habits of a species, and that such capacity of accommodation to new circumstances is enjoyed in very different degrees, by different species.
Certain qualities appear to be bestowed exclusively with a view to the relations which are destined to exist between different species, and, among others, between certain species and man; but these latter are always so nearly connected with the original habits and propensities of each species in a wild state, that they imply no indefinite capacity of varying from the original type. The acquired habits derived from human tuition are rarely transmitted to the offspring; and when this happens, it is almost universally the case with those merely which have some obvious connexion with the attributes of the species when in a state of independence.