134 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



fowl or pigeon, it would have received attention at once 

 on that account. 



As to the peacock it is excused on the pleas (1), that 

 the individuals maintained are so few in number, and (2) 

 that its beauty is so great it can hardly be improved. But 

 the individuals maintained have not been too few for the in- 

 dependent origin of the black-shouldered form, or for the 

 supplanting of the commoner one by it. As to any neglect 

 in selection, it can hardly be imagined that with regard to 

 this bird (kept as it is all but exclusively for its beauty), 

 any spontaneous beautiful variation in color or form would 

 have been neglected. On the contrary, it would have been 

 seized upon with avidity and preserved with anxious care. 

 Yet apart from the black-shouldered and white varieties, no 

 tendency to change has been known to show itself. As to 

 its being too beautiful for improvement, that is a proposi- 

 tion which can hardly be maintained. Many consider the 

 Javan bird as much handsomer than the common peacock, 

 and it would be easy to suggest a score of improvements as 

 regards either species. 



The guinea-fowl is excused, as being " no general favor- 

 ite, and scarcely more common than the peacock ;" but Mr. 

 Darwin himself shows and admits that it is a noteworthy 

 instance of constancy under very varied conditions. 



These instances alone (and there are yet others) seem 

 sufficient to establish the assertion that degree of change is 

 different in different domestic animals. It is, then, some- 

 what unwarrantable in any Darwinian to assume that all 

 wild animals have a capacity for change similar to that ex- 

 isting in some of the domestic ones. It seems more reason- 

 able to assert the opposite, namely, that if, as Mr. Darwin 

 says, the capacity for change is different in different domes- 

 tic animals, it must surely be limited in those which have 

 it least, and a fortiori limited in wild animals. 



Indeed, it cannot be reasonably maintained that wild 



