CREATION BY LAW. 289 



we have only to breed it in sufficient quantities and 

 watch carefully, and the required variety is always 

 found, and can be increased to almost any desired ex- 

 tent. In Sheep, we get flesh, fat, and wool ; in Cows, 

 milk ; in Horses, colour, strength, size, and speed ; in 

 Poultry, we have got almost any variety of colour, 

 curious modifications of plumage, and the capacity of 

 perpetual egg-laying. In Pigeons we have a still 

 more remarkable proof of the universality of varia- 

 tion, for it has been at one time or another the fancy 

 of breeders to change the form of every part of 

 these birds, and they have never found the required 

 variations absent. The form, size, and shape of bill 

 and feet, have been changed to such a degree as is 

 found only in distinct genera of wild birds ; the num- 

 ber of tail feathers has been increased, a character 

 which is generally one of the most permanent nature, 

 and is of high importance in the classification of 

 birds ; and the size, the colour, and the habits, have 

 been also changed to a marvellous extent. In Dogs, 

 the degree of modification and the facility with which 

 it is effected, is almost equally apparent. Look at 

 the constant amount of variation in opposite direc- 

 tions that must have been going on, to develop the 

 poodle and the greyhound from the same original 

 stock ! Instincts, habits, intelligence, size, speed, 

 form, and colour, have always varied, so as to produce 

 the very races which the wants or fancies or passions 

 of men may have led them to desire. Whether they 

 wanted a bull-dog to torture another animal, a grey- 



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