4* 



domestication, it is this plasticity of constitution that in my 

 opinion is the most important factor in the production of a 

 domestic animal. 



Some domestic animals vary very much from their 

 ancestors, others do not; for instance, the wild Ass of 

 Abyssinia, would, if seen drawing a cart in London, attract 

 no more attention than the ordinary domestic animal, indeed 

 the descendant has scarcely varied from the ancestor except 

 in shades of colour and in differences of size. 



On the other hand, it is difficult to recognize a Blenheim 

 spaniel or a Maltese lap-dog as descendants of wolves. 



There is one point in regard to domestic mammalia that 

 is puzzling, it is quite certain that many hybrid domestic 

 species are perfectly fertile, yet the hybrid offspring of the 

 horse and ass is rarely so ; when at Granada I enquired of 

 the British Consul there, as to whether he had ever known 

 of a fertile mule, he said, no, but that he had heard of such 

 cases, this was said by a man who had been in Spain 15 

 years, and where many hundreds of mules may be seen in a 

 day. 



I had intended to have dealt with domestic birds in this 

 paper, but although I have compressed what I had to say as 

 much as possible, I fear that the proper limit has been 

 exceeded. 



