40 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



II 



even when herded with other sheep, it was noted 

 that the An cons 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 found it difficult to 

 obtain the specimen, the skeleton of which was 

 presented to Sir Joseph Banks. We believe that, 

 for many years, no remnant of it has existed in 

 the United States. 



Gratio Kelleia was not the progenitor of a race 

 of six-fingered men, as Seth Wright's ram became 

 a nation of Ancon sheep, though the tendency of 

 the variety to perpetuate itself appears to have 

 been fully as strong in the one case as in the 

 other. And the reason of the difference is not 

 far to seek. Seth Wright took care not to weaken 

 the Ancon blood by matching his Ancon ewes 

 with any but males of the same variety, while 

 Gratio Kelleia' s sons were too far removed from 

 the patriarchal times to intermarry with their 

 sisters ; and his grand-children seem not to have 

 been attracted by their six-fingered cousins. In 

 other words, in the one example a race was pro- 

 duced, because, for several generations, care was 

 taken to select both parents of the breeding stock 

 from animals exhibiting a tendency to vary in the 



