212 EEPOKT— 1891. 



these short-winded sheep used to be left behind, being unable 

 to be driven with the rest. Sometimes they were brought on 

 more slowly afterwards ; but, if it happened to be shearing- 

 time, they were simply caught and shorn where they lay. 



As a result of this peculiar condition, a form of artificial 

 selection was set up, the vigorous, active sheep being constantly 

 drafted away for sale, &c., while this defective strain increased 

 with great rapidity throughout the district ; for, whenever the 

 mobs were mustered for the market, shearing, or drafting, 

 these "cranky" sheep (as they came to be called) were left 

 behind. This defective character appeared in every succeeding 

 generation, and seemed to increase in force, reminding one of 

 the Ancon sheep referred to by Darwin. At first, of course, 

 the character w^as not recognised as hereditary ; but, as the 

 numbers of this "cranky" breed increased to a very serious 

 extent and spread over the district, it came at last to be recog- 

 nised as a local variety. When the runs on which these sheep 

 were abundant were cut up and sold, or re-leased in smaller 

 areas, a few years ago, the pm-chasers found it necessary, for 

 the protection of their own interests, to exterminate the 

 variety, of which hundreds were found straggling over the 

 country. This was easily and effectually done in the follow- 

 ing manner : As soon as a sheep was observed it was pursued ; 

 but, after running for a couple of hundred yards at a great rate 

 of speed, it would drop down panting behind a big stone or other 

 shelter, and seemed incapable for a time of rising and renewing 

 its flight. It was immediately destroyed ; and in this manner 

 a useless — but, to the naturalist, a very interesting — variety 

 was eliminated. 



Now, cases of variation, preserved in some similarly singular 

 manner, might easily arise among our many introduced forms 

 of plants and animals under the greatly altered conditions in 

 wdiich they are placed in this new field ; and the close observa- 

 tion of these forms at present and the changes they undergo 

 will be found to furnish a line of observation which it will 

 always repay the naturalist to follow out. 



In concluding these remarks I desire to make one prac- 

 tical suggestion. It is that either our acclimatisation societies 

 should be amalgamated together into one or, at most, two 

 bodies for each Island, or — what in this land of provincial 

 jealousies might prove a better w'ay of overcoming the diffi- 

 culty — that a representative body, responsible only to the 

 Government, be formed, which should control all attempts at 

 the introduction of new forms of life. At present, any society 

 possesses the power — limited only by its finances — of intro- 

 ducing anything that an active member chooses to suggest. 

 In this way it might be possible to prevent much mischief in 



