_Associated habitual movements in the lower animals_.—I have already
given in the case of Man several instances of movements associated with
various states of the mind or body, which are now purposeless, but
which were originally of use, and are still of use under certain
circumstances. As this subject is very important for us, I will here
give a considerable number of analogous facts, with reference to
animals; although many of them are of a very trifling nature. My object
is to show that certain movements were originally performed for a
definite end, and that, under nearly the same circumstances, they are
still pertinaciously performed through habit when not of the least use.
That the tendency in most of the following cases is inherited, we may
infer from such actions being performed in the same manner by all the
individuals, young and old, of the same species. We shall also see that
they are excited by the most diversified, often circuitous, and
sometimes mistaken associations.
Dogs, when they wish to go to sleep on a carpet or other hard surface,
generally turn round and round and scratch the ground with their
fore-paws in a senseless manner, as if they intended to trample down
the grass and scoop out a hollow, as no doubt their wild parents did,
when they lived on open grassy plains or in the woods. Jackals,
fennecs, and other allied animals in the Zoological Gardens, treat
their straw in this manner; but it is a rather odd circumstance that
the keepers, after observing for some months, have never seen the
wolves thus behave. A semi-idiotic dog—and an animal in this condition
would be particularly liable to follow a senseless habit—was observed
by a friend to turn completely round on a carpet thirteen times before
going to sleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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