galton.org 187
Domestication of Animals
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the poll, without experiencing the least opposition, the poor harmless animal seeming at
the same time as contented alongside the canoe as if swimming by the side of its dam, and
looking up in our faces with the same fearless innocence that a house lamb would.”
On the other hand, a young bison will try to dash out its brains against
the tree to which it is tied, in terror and hatred of its captors.
It is interesting to note the causes that conduce to a decided attachment
of certain animals to man, or between one kind of animal and another. It is
notorious that attachments and aversions exist in nature. Swallows, rooks,
and storks frequent dwelling houses; ostriches and zebras herd together;
so do bisons and elks. On the other hand, deer and sheep, which are both
gregarious, and both eat the same food and graze within the same
enclosure, avoid one another. The spotted Danish dog, the Spitz dog, and
the cat, have all a strong attachment to horses, and horses seem pleased
with their company; but dogs and cats, are proverbially discordant. I
presume that two species of animals do not consider one another
companionable, or clubable, unless their behaviour and their persons are
reciprocally agreeable. A phlegmatic animal would be exceedingly
disquieted by the close companionship of an excitable one. The
movements of one beast may have a character that is unpleasing to the
eyes of another; his cries may sound discordant; his smell may be
repulsive. Two herds of animals would hardly intermingle, unless their
respective languages of action and of voice were mutually intelligible.
The animal which above all others is a companion to man is the dog, and
we observe how readily their proceedings are intelligible to each other.
Every whine or bark of the dog, each of his fawning, savage, or timorous
movements is the exact counterpart of what would have been the man’s
behaviour, had he felt similar emotions. As the man understands the
thoughts of the dog, so the dog understands the thoughts of the man, by
attending to his natural voice, his countenance, and his actions. A man
irritates a dog by an ordinary laugh, he frightens him by an angry look, or
he calms him by a kindly bearing; but he has less spontaneous hold over
an ox or a sheep. He must study their ways and tutor his behaviour
