THE LAWS OF VARIABILITY. 73 



any of these qualities, he will assuredly fail. Few would 

 readily believe in the natural capacity and years of prac- 

 tice requisite to become even a skillful pigeon-fancier. 



UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 



. . A man who intends keeping pointers nat- 



Species, urally tries to get as good dogs as he can, and 

 page 25. afterward breeds from his own best dogs, but 

 he has no wish or expectation of permanently altering the 

 breed. Nevertheless, we may infer that this process, con- 

 tinued during centuries, would improve and modify any 

 breed, in the same way as Bakewell, Collins, etc., by this 

 very same process, only carried on more methodically, did 

 greatly modify, even during their lifetimes, the forms 

 and qualities of their cattle. Slow and insensible changes 

 of this kind can never be recognized unless actual meas- 

 urements or careful drawings of the breeds in question 

 have been made long ago, which may serve for compari- 

 son. In some cases, however, unchanged or but little 

 changed individuals of the same breed exist in less civil- 

 ized districts, where the breed has been less improved. 

 There is reason to believe that King Charles's spaniel has 

 been unconsciously modified to a large extent since the 

 time of that monarch. Some highly competent authori- 

 ties are convinced that the setter is directly derived from 

 the spaniel, and has probably been slowly altered from it. 

 It is known that the English pointer has been greatly 

 changed within the last century, and in this case the 

 change has, it is believed, been chiefly effected by crosses 

 with the fox-hound ; but what concerns us is, that the 

 change has been effected unconsciously and gradually, 



Kd yet so effectually, that, though the old Spanish 

 inter certainly came from Spain, Mr. Borrow has not 



