16 THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS r 
animal anomalies is not satisfied, a turn or two in . 
Seven Dials will convince him that the breeds of 
pigeons are quite as extraordinary and unlike one 
another and their parent stock, while the Horti-_ 
cultural Society will provide him with any number | 
of corresponding vegetable aberrations from 
nature’s types. He will learn with no little 
surprise, too, in the course of his travels, that the 
proprietors and producers of these animal and 
vegetable anomalies regard them as distinct 
species, with a firm belief, the strength of which 
is exactly proportioned to their ignorance of 
scientific biology, and which is the more remark- 
able as they are all proud of their skill in originat-_ 
ing such “species.” 
On careful inquiry it is found that all these, and 
the many other artificial breeds or races of animals 
and plants, have been produced by one method. 
The breeder—and a skilful one must be a person 
of much sagacity and natural or acquired perceptive 
faculty—notes some slight difference, arismg he 
knows not how, in some individuals of his stock. 
If he wish to perpetuate the difference, to form a 
breed with the peculiarity in question strongly 
marked, he selects such male and female indi- 
viduals as exhibit the desired character, and breeds 
from them. Their offspring are then carefully 
examined, and those which exhibit the peculiarity 
the most distinctly are selected for breeding; and 
this operation is repeated until the desired amount 
