It has generally been the custom of writers on Natural History to take the
habits and instincts of animals as fixed points, and to consider their structure and
organization, as specially adapted, to be in accordance with these. This
assumption is however an arbitrary one, and has the bad effect of stifling inquiry
into the nature and causes of "instincts and habits," treating them as directly due
to a "first cause," and therefore, incomprehensible to us. I believe that a careful
consideration of the structure of a species, and of the peculiar physical and
organic conditions by which it is surrounded, or has been surrounded in past
ages, will often, as in this case, throw much light on the origin of its habits and
instincts. These again, combined with changes in external conditions, react upon
structure, and by means of "variation" and "natural selection", both are kept in
harmony.
My friends remained three days, and got plenty of wild pigs and two Anóas,
but the latter were much injured by the dogs, and I could only preserve the
heads. A grand hunt which we attempted on the third day failed, owing to bad
management in driving in the game, and we waited for five hours perched on
platforms in trees without getting a shot, although we had been assured that pigs,
Babirusas, and Anóas would rush past us in dozens. I myself, with two men,
stayed three days longer to get more specimens of the Maleos, and succeeded in
preserving twenty-six very fine ones—the flesh and eggs of which supplied us
with abundance of good food.
The Major sent a boat, as he had promised, to take home my baggage, while I
walked through the forest with my two boys and a guide, about fourteen miles.
For the first half of the distance there was no path, and we had often to cut our
way through tangled rattans or thickets of bamboo. In some of our turnings to
find the most practicable route, I expressed my fear that we were losing our way,
as the sun being vertical, I could see no possible clue to the right direction. My
conductors, however, laughed at the idea, which they seemed to consider quite
ludicrous; and sure enough, about half way, we suddenly encountered a little hut
where people from Licoupang came to hunt and smoke wild pigs. My guide told
me he had never before traversed the forest between these two points; and this is
what is considered by some travellers as one of the savage "instincts," whereas it
is merely the result of wide general knowledge. The man knew the topography
of the whole district; the slope of the land, the direction of the streams, the belts
of bamboo or rattan, and many other indications of locality and direction; and he
was thus enabled to hit straight upon the hut, in the vicinity of which he had
often hunted. In a forest of which he knew nothing, he would be quite as much at
a loss as a European. Thus it is, I am convinced, with all the wonderful accounts