v.] SPECIFIC STABILITY. 135 



the cause of the neglect, as the reverse. It is by no means 

 unfair to assume that had the goose shown a tendency to 

 vary similar in degree to the tendency to variation of the 

 fowl or pigeon, it would have received attention at once on 

 that account. 



As to the peacock, it is excused on the pleas (1), that the 

 individuals maintained are so few in number, and (2), that 

 its beauty is so great it can hardly be improved. 15ut the 

 individuals maintained have not been too few for the inde- 

 pendent origin of the black-shouldered form, or for the 

 supplanting of the commoner one by it. As to any 

 neglect in selection, it can hardly be imagined that with 

 regard to this bird (kept as it is all but exclusively for its 

 beauty), any spontaneous beautiful variation in colour or 

 form would have been neglected. On the contrary, it 

 would have been seized upon with avidity and preserved 

 with anxious care. Yet apart from the blackrshouldered 

 and white varieties, no tendency to change has been known 

 to show^ itself. As to its being too beautiful for improve- 

 ment, that is a proposition which can hardly be maintained. 

 Many consider the Javan bird much handsomer than the 

 common peacock, and it would be easy to suggest a score 

 of improvements as regards either species. 



The guinea-fowl is excused, as being " no general 

 favourite, and scarcely more common than the peacock ; " 

 but ^Ir. Darwun himself shows and admits that it is a 

 notew^orthy instance of constancy under very varied 

 conditions. 



These instances alone (and there are yet others) seem 

 sufficient to establish the assertion that degree of change 

 is different in different domestic animals. It is, then, 

 somewhat unwarrantable in any Darwinian to assume that 



