28 UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 



not associated with Europeans. Some of these facts do 

 not show actual selection, but they show that the breeding 

 of domestic animals was carefully attended to in ancient 

 times, and is now attended to by the lowest savages. It 

 would, indeed, have been a strange fact, had attention not 

 been paid to breeding, for the inheritance of good and bad 

 qualities is so obvious. 



UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 



At the present time, eminent breeders try by methodical 

 selection, with a distinct object in view, to make a new 

 strain or sub-breed, superior to anything of the kind in the 

 country. But, for our purpose, a form of selection, which 

 may be called unconscious, and which results from every 

 one trying to possess and breed from the best individual 

 animals, is more important. Thus, a man who intends 

 keeping pointers naturally tries to get as good dogs as he 

 can, and afterward breeds from his own best dogs, but he has 

 no wish or expectation of permanently altering the breed. 

 Nevertheless we may infer that this process, continued 

 during centuries, would improve and modify any breed, in 

 the same way as Bakewell, Collins, etc., by this very same 

 process, only carried on more methodically, did greatly 

 modify, even during their lifetimes, the forms and qualities 

 of their cattle. Slow and insensible changes of this kind 

 can never be recognized unless actual measurements or care- 

 ful drawings of the breeds in question have been made long 

 ago, which may serve for comparison. In some cases, how- 

 ever, unchanged, or but little changed, individuals of the 

 same breed exist in less civilized districts, where the breed 

 has been less improved. There is reason to believe that 

 King Charles' spaniel has been unconsciously modified to a 

 large extent since the time of that monarch. Some highly 

 competent authorities are convinced that the setter is 

 directly derived from the spaniel, and has probably been 

 slowly altered from it. It is known that the English 

 pointer has been greatly changed within the last century, 

 and in this case the change has, it is believed, been chiefly 

 effected by crosses with the foxhound ; but what concerns 

 us is, that the change has been effected unconsciously and 

 gradually, and yet so effectually that, though the old 

 Spanish pointer certainly came from Spain, Mr. Borrow 

 has not seen, as I am informed by him, any native dog in. 

 ftpian like our pointer. 



