Chap. XX. UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 195 



Berkshire sub-breeds, it is said, " the white should be confined 

 " to four white feet, a white spot between the eyes, and a few 

 " white hairs behind each shoulder." Mr. Saddler possessed 

 " three hundred pigs, every one of which was marked in this 

 *' manner." ^^ Marshall, towards the close of the last century, 

 in speaking of a change in one of the Yorkshire breeds of 

 cattle, says the horns have been considerably modified, as 

 '* a clean, small, sharp horn has been fashionable for the last 

 twenty years." '° In a part of Germany the cattle of the 

 Eace de Gfoehl are valued for many good qualities, but they 

 must have horns of a particular curvature and tint, so much 

 so that mechanical means are applied if they take a wrong 

 direction ; but the inhabitants " consider it of the highest 

 *' importance that the nostrils of the bull should be flesh- 

 -coloured, and the eyelashes light; this is an indispensable 

 " condition. A calf with blue nostrils would not be pur- 

 " chased, or purchased at a very low price." "^ Therefore let 

 no man say that any point or character is too trifling 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 man of the most 

 valued, and the destruction of the least valued individuals, 

 without any conscious intention on his part of altering the 

 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 difierence between methodical aad 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 



«9 Sidney's edit, of Youatt, 1860, vol. ii. p. 182. 

 pp. 24, 25. " Moll et Gayot, ' Du Bceuf,' 1860 



'" * Rural Economy of Yorkshire,' p. 547. 



