xii.] THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 233 



respect, particularly instructive. With the &quot; cuteness &quot; charac 

 teristic of their nation, the neighbours of the Massachusetts 

 farmer imagined it would be an excellent thing if all his sheep 

 were imbued with the stay-at-home tendencies enforced by 

 Nature upon the newly-arrived ram ; and they advised Wright 

 to kill the old patriarch of his fold, and install the Ancon ram in 

 his place. The result justified their sagacious anticipations, and 

 coincided very nearly with what occurred to the progeny of 

 Gratio Kelleia. The young lambs were almost always either 

 pure Ancons, or pure ordinary sheep. 1 But when sufficient 

 Ancon sheep were obtained to interbreed with one another, it 

 was found that the offspring was always pure Ancon. Colonel 

 Humphreys, in fact, states that he was acquainted with only 

 &quot; one questionable case of a contrary nature.&quot; Here, then, is a 

 remarkable and well-established instance, not only of a very 

 distinct race being established per saltum, but of that race breeding 

 &quot; true &quot; at once, and showing no mixed forms, even when crossed 

 with another breed. 



By taking care to select Ancons of both sexes, for breeding 

 from, it thus became easy to establish an extremely well-marked 

 race ; so peculiar that, even when herded with other sheep, it 

 was noted that the Ancons kept together. And there is every 

 reason to believe that the existence of this breed might have 

 been indefinitely protracted ; but the introduction of the Merino 

 sheep, which were not only very superior to the Ancons in wool 

 and meat, but quite as quiet and orderly, led to the complete 

 neglect of the new breed, so that, in 1813, Colonel Humphreys 



1 Colonel Humphreys statements are exceedingly explicit on this point : 

 &quot; When an Ancon ewe is impregnated by a common ram, the increase 

 resembles wholly either the ewe or the ram. The increase of the common 

 ewe impregnated by an Ancon ram follows entirely the one or the other, 

 without blending any of the distinguishing and essential peculiarities of 

 both. Frequent instances have happened where common ewes have had 

 twins by Ancon rams, when one exhibited the complete marks and features 

 of the ewe, the other of the ram. The contrast has been rendered singularly 

 striking, when one short-legged and one long-legged lamb, produced at a 

 birth, have been seen sucking the dam at the same time.&quot; Philosophical 

 Transactions, 1813, Pt. I. pp. 89, 90. 



