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Show 24 VARIATION [CHAP. 1. from our European cattle; and several competent judges believe that these latter have had more than one wild parent. With respect to horses, from reasons which I cannot give here, I am doubtfully inclined to believe, in opposition to several authors, that all the races have descended fron1 one wild stock. Mr. Blyth, whose opinion, from his large and varied stores of knowledge, I should value more than that of almost any one, thinks that all the breeds of poultry have proceeded from the common wild Indian fowl (Gallus bankiva). In regard to ducks and rabbits, the breeds of which differ considerably from each other in structure, I do not doubt that they all have descended from the common wild duck and rabbit. The doctrine of the origin of our several domestic races from several aboriginal stocks, has been carried to an absurd extreme by son1e authors. They believe that every race which breeds true, let the distinctive characters be ever so slight, has had its wild prototype. At this rate there must have existed at least a score of species of wild cattle, as many sheep, and several goats in Europe alone, and several even within Great Britain. One author believes that there formerly existed in Great Britain eleven wild species of sheep peculiar to it! When we bear in mind that Britain has now hardly one peculiar Inammal, and France but few distinct from those of Germany and conversely, and so with Hungary, Spain, &c., but that each of these kingdoms possesses several peculiar breeds of cattle, sheep, &c., we must admit that many domestic breeds have originated in Europe; for whence could they have been denved, as these several countries do not possess a number of peculiar species as distinct parent-stocks ~ So it is in India. Even in the case of the domestic .dogs of the whole world, which I fully admit have probably descended from several wild species, I cannot doubt that there has been an immense amount of inherited variation. Who can believe that animals closely resembling the Italian greyhound, the bloodhound, the bull-dog, or Blenheiin spaniel, &c.-so unlike all wild Canidre-ever existed freely in a state of nature ? It has often been loosely said that all our races of dogs have been CHAP. 1.] UNDER DOMES'l'ICATION. 25 produce~ by the crossing of a few aboriginal spemes · but by crossing we can get only forms in some degree intermediate between their parents; and if we account for our several domes!ic races by this process, we must admit the .former existence of the most extreme forms, as the Itahan greyhound, bloodh?u?-9-, bull-dog, &c., in the wild state. ¥oreover, the possibility of making distinct races by crossing has been greatly exaggerated. There can be no dou~t !hat a race may be modified by occasional crosses, if aid~d by the careful selection of those individual mongrels, which present any desired character · but that a race could. be obtained nearly intermediate between two e~tremely ~1fferent races or species, I can hardly believe. Sir J. ~ebright expressly experimentised for this object and failed. The offspring from the first cross betwee~ two pur~ br~eds is tolerably and sometimes (as I have found :vith p1geons) extremely uniform, and everything seems snr;ple enough ; but when these mongrels are crossed one ~Ith anot~er for several generations, hardly two of them Will be ahke, and then the extreme difficulty or rathe~ utter hopele~sness, o~ the task becomes appar~nt. Certainly, a breed Intermediate between two very distinct bree~s could no~ be got without extreme care and longcontinued selection; nor can I find a sinO'le case on record of a permanent race having been thus fo~med. (}_n. the Breeds of the .Domestic Pigeon. -Believing that It IS .alwaJ:s best to study some special group, I have, after dehberahon, t~ken up domestic pigeons. I have kept every breed whiCh I could purchase or obtain and have been most kindly favoured with skins from se~eral qu~rters of the. world, more especially by the Ron. W. ~lhot from India, .and py t~e Ron. C. Murray from PerSia .. Many tr~ahses In drfferent languages have been published. on pigeon.s, and some. of. them are very importa?- t, as berng of ~onsidera~le antiquity. I have associated :v~th several eminent fanmers, and have been permitted to JOin two of the London Pigeon Clubs. The diversity of the bree.ds is something astonishing. Compare the English carrier and the short-faced tumbler and see the wonderful difference in their beaks, entailing corresponding differ- 2 |