UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 31 



tain seasons. And in two countries very differently cir- 

 cumstanced, individuals of the same species, having slightly 

 different constitutions or structure, would often succeed 

 better in the one country than in the other ; and thus by a 

 process of " natural selection," as will hereafter be more 

 fully explained, two sub-breeds might be formed. This, per- 

 haps, partly explains why the varieties kept by savages, as 

 has been remarked by some authors, have more of the char- 

 acter of true species than the varieties kept in civilized 

 countries. 



On the view here given of the important part which 

 selection by man has played, it becomes at once obvious, 

 how it is that our domestic races show adaptation in their 

 structure or in their habits to man's wants or fancies. We 

 can, I think, further understand the frequently abnormal 

 character of our domestic races, and likewise their differ- 

 ences being so great in external characters, and relatively 

 so slight in internal parts or organs. Man can hardly 

 select, or only with much difficulty, any deviation of struc- 

 ture excepting such as is externally visible ; and indeed he 

 rarely cares for what is internal. He can never act by 

 selection, excepting on variations which are first given to 

 him in some slight degree by nature. No man would ever 

 try to make a fantail till he saw a pigeon with a tail 

 developed in some slight degree in an unusual manner, 

 or a pouter till he saw a pigeon with a crop of somewhat 

 unusual size ; and the more abnormal or unusual any char- 

 acter was when it first appeared, the more likely it would 

 be to catch his attention. But to use such an expression 

 as trying to make a fantail is, I have no doubt, in most 

 cases utterly incorrect. The man who first selected a 

 pigeon with a slightly larger tail, never dreamed what the 

 descendants of that pigeon would become through long- 

 continued, partly unconscious and partly methodical, selec- 

 tion. Perhaps the parent-bird of all fantails had only 

 fourteen tail-feathers somewhat expanded, like the present 

 Java fantail, or like individuals of other and distinct breeds, 

 in which as many as seventeen tail-feathers have been 

 counted. Perhaps the first pouter-pigeon did not inflate 

 its crop much more than the turbid now does the upper 

 part of its oesophagus — a habit which is disregarded by all 

 fanciers, as it is not one of the points of the breed. 



Nor let it be thought that some great deviation of struc- 

 ture would be necessary to catch the fancier's eye j he per- 



