16 CHARACTER OF DOMESTIC VARIETIES. 



wild progenitors, whether or not these deserve to be called 

 species. This conclusion, as well as that of the specific 

 distinction between the humped and common cattle, may, 

 indeed, be looked upon as established by the admirable 

 researches of Professor Riitimeyer. With respect to horses, 

 from reasons which I cannot here give, I am doubtfully 

 inclined to believe, in opposition to several authors, that all 

 the races belong to the same species. Having kept nearly 

 all the English breeds of the fowl alive, having bred and 

 crossed them, and examined their skeletons, it appears to 

 me almost certain that all are the descendants of the wild 

 Indian fowl, Gallus bankiva ; and this is the conclusion of 

 Mr. Blyth, and of others who have studied this bird in 

 India. In regard to ducks and rabbits, some breeds of 

 which differ much from each other, the evidence is clear 

 that they are all descended from the common duck and wild 

 rabbit. 



The doctrine of the origin of our several domestic races 

 from several aboriginal stocks, has been carried to an absurd 

 extreme by some authors. They believe that every race 

 which breeds true, let the distinctive characters be ever so 

 slight, has had its wild prototype. At this rate there must 

 have existed at least a score of species of wild cattle, as 

 many sheep, and several goats, in Europe alone, and several 

 even within Great Britain. One author believes that there 

 formerly existed eleven wild species of sheep peculiar to 

 Great Britain ! When we bear in mind that Britain has 

 now not one peculiar mammal, and France but few distinct 

 from those of Germany, and so with Hungary, Spain, etc., 

 but that each of these kingdoms possesses several peculiar 

 breeds of cattle, sheep, etc., we must admit that many 

 domestic breeds must have originated in Europe ; for whence 

 otherwise could they have been derived ? So it is in India. 

 Even in the case of the breeds of the domestic dog through- 

 out the world, which I admit are descended from several 

 wild species, it cannot be doubted that there has been an 

 immense amount of inherited variation ; for who will believe 

 that animals closely resembling the Italian greyhound, the 

 bloodhound, the bull-dog, pug-dog, or Blenheim spaniel, etc. 

 — so urflike all wild Canidse — ever existed in a state of 

 nature ? It has often been loosely said that all our races 

 of dogs have been produced by the crossing of a few abori- 

 ginal species ; but by crossing we can only get forms in 

 Home dsflrr^ rt intermediate between their parents; and if we 



