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Show 210 SELECTION. CllAP. XX. £ ment In the Philippines, races are kept distinct merely or orna . k ai·e h :pt and no less than nm. e su· b -van·e tI' es 0 f th.< ->' game coc '" d 1 t th must be separately bred. name , ·o t a e~ . E . the smallest peculiarities are At the present time m mope, . 1 'th f. . . most useful amma s, ei er IOm care~ully attended t~ Ifn o~~t f blood. l\Iany examples eoulcl fashiOn or as a marl'" o pun ,y 0 . f E 1 _, . ' . ·n :ffi "In the vVestern counties o "ng anu be given, tw? WI s~ ce. . . . ·uly as strong as against " the prejudwe agamst a white plg IS nc< l . L 1.. d · . . y ·l~ 1 . . , In one of the Berl;:s me suu-ur ee s, " a black one m 01 '"s me. . . · · • • • _1_ .t b ld be confined to four white feet, It IS sa1d "the "ui e s ou . . 1. 1. · d " a wln. te ' spot b e t ween th e e )r es, and a few wlute hairs ueum < • " h l ld . " 1\'[r. Saddler possessed ,, three hundr d pigs, eac s 1ou e1. · . . . " 69 l\1 .. 1 11 " every one of w hI.C 11 was ID<"• rl-'" edm thrs manne.i . ar s 1a , towar d s th e c1 o se of . tlle last century ' in spcakmg of a change in one of the Yorkshire breeds of cattle, says the horns have 'd . bl dified as " a clean small, sharp horn has been cons I ei a y mo ' < ' "70 I . f been jaslzionable for the last twenty years. n a part o Germany the cattle of the Hace de Gfoehl are val~cd for many goo d qual 1.t .r es, b ut they must haYe horn. s of a partiCular cu. rva.- ture and tint, so mu~h so_ that mecham:al m_eans a~~e ap~l1e~ ~f they take a wrong drrectwn ; but the mh_abitants consider It " of the highest importance that the nos~nls of t~e ?ull s~wu_ld " be flesh-coloured, and the eyelashes l1ght; th1s IS an mchs" eusable condition. A calf with blue nostrils would not be " ~urchased, or purchased at a very low pri~e." 71 T_h:refore let no man say that any point or character IS too tnflmg to be methodically attended to and selected by breeders. Unconscious Selection.-By this term I mean, as already more than once explained, the preservation by rna~ o~ t?e most v~lued, and the destruction of the least valued mdrv1duals, w1thm~t any conscious intention on his part of altering th_e breed. It IS difficult to offer direct proofs of the results whiCh follow from this kind of selection; but the indirect evidence is abundant. In fact, except that in the one case man acts intentionally, and in the other unintentionally, there is little difference between 69 Sidney's edit. of Youatt, 1860, pp. 24:, 25. 70 'Rural Economy of Yorkshire vol. ii. p. 182. 71 Mollet Gayot, 'Du Bceuf,' 1860, p. 517. CHAP. XX. UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 211 methodical and unconscious selection. In both cases man preserves the animals which are most useful or pleasing to him, and destroys or neglects the others. But no doubt a far more rapid result follows from methodical than from unconscious selection. The "roguing" of plants by gardeners, and the destruction by law in Henry VIII.'s reign of all under-sized mares, are instances of a process the reverse of selection in the ordinary sense of the word, but leading to the same general result. The influence of the destruction of individuals having a particular character is well shown by the necessity of killing every lamb with a trace of black about it, in order to keep the flock white; or again, by the effects on the average height of the men of France of the destructive wars of Napoleon, by which many tall men were kllled, the shott ones being left to be the fathers of families. This at least is the conclusion of those who have closely studied the subject of the conscription; and it is certain that since Napoleon's time the standard for the army has been lowered two or three times. Unconscious selection so blends into methodical that it is scarcely possible to separate them. When a fancier long ago first happened to notice a pigeon with an unusually short beak, or one ·with the tail-feathers unusually developed, although he bred from these birds with the distinct intention of propagating the variety, yet he could not have intended to make a short-faced tumbler or a fantail, and was far from knowing that he had made the first step towards this end. If he could have seen the final result, he would have been struck with astonishment, but, from what we know of the habits of fanciers, probably not with admiration. Our English carriers, barbs, and shortfaced tumblers have been greatly modified in the same manner, as we may infer both from the historical evidence given in the chapters on the Pigeon, and from the comparison of birds brought from distant countries. So it has been with dogs; our present fox-hounds differ from the old English hound; our greyhounds have become lighter; the wolf-dog, which belonged to the greyhound class, has become extinct; the Scotch deer-hound has been modified, and is now rare. Our bulldogs differ from those which were formerly used for baiting bulls. Our pointers and N ewfoundlands do not p 2 |
