stinct, as in
the case of flesh-flies laying their eggs on certain flowers instead of
putrifying meat. However true the ignorance of the end may generally be,
one sees that instincts are associated with some degree of reason; for
instance, in the case of the tailor-bird, who spins threads with which
to make her nest <yet> will use artificial threads when she can procure
them{280}; so it has been known that an old pointer has broken his point
and gone round a hedge to drive out a bird towards his master{281}.

{278} Lord Brougham's _Dissertations on Subjects of Science_, etc.,
1839, p. 27.

{279} This case is more briefly given in the _Origin_, Ed. i. p.
213, vi. p. 326. The simile of the butterfly occurs there also.

{280} "A little dose, as Pierre Huber expresses it, of judgment or
reason, often comes into play." _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 208, vi. p.
320.

{281} In the margin is written "Retriever killing one bird." This
refers to the cases given in the _Descent of Man_, 2nd Ed. (in 1
vol.) p. 78, of a retriever being puzzled how to deal with a
wounded and a dead bird, killed the former and carried both at
once. This was the only known instance of her wilfully injuring
game.

There is one other quite distinct method by which the instincts or
habits acquired under domestication may be compared with those given by
nature, by a test of a fundamental kind; I mean the comparison of the
mental powers of mongrels and hybrids. Now the instincts, or habits,
tastes, and dispositions of one _breed_ of animals, when crossed with
another breed, for instance a shepherd-dog with a harrier, are blended
and appear in the same curiously mixed degree, both in the first and
succeeding generations, exactly as happens when one _species_ is crossed
with another{282}. This would hardly be the case if there was any
fundamental difference between the domestic and natural instinct{283};
if the former were, to use a metaphorical expression, merely
superficial.

{282} See _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 214, vi. p. 327.

{283} <Note in original.> Give some definition of instinct, or at
least give chief attributes. <In _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 207, vi. p.
319, Darwin refuses to define instinct.> The term instinct is often
used in <a> sense which implies no more than that the animal does
the action in question. Faculties and instincts may I think be
imperfectly sep