149, 
THE BEE, 
LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGNCER, 
FOR 
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. 1793 
t 
THOUGHTS ON WHAT Is CALLED VARIETIES, OR DIFa 
FERENT BREEDS OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS, SUGGEST= 
ED BY READING DR PALLAS’s ACCOUNT OF RUSSIAN 
SHEEP—BY THE EDITOR. 
i. only rule that has hitherto been adopted by 
naturalists to mark the distinction between a species 
and a variety is, that though different species of a= 
nimals of the same genus may-:be brought to breed to- 
gether, as the horse and the afs, yet the animals 
thus produced, are not prolific; whereas the proge- 
hy arising from an intermixture of different varieties 
of the same species, are themselves equally prolific as 
the parents from which they sprang. Adhering to 
this rule Dr Pallas, very properly, calls all the kinds 
of sheep yet known, only varteties of the same species 
of animal, because he has found that the mixed proe 
geny of the whole are prolific. 
_ Naturalists however have not stopped here. In 
their desire for simplification they have gone a step 
Vol, XVil. Pe t 
