CHARACTER OF DOMESTIC VARIETIES. 17 



am doubtfully inclined to believe, in opposition to several 

 authors, that all the races belong to the same species. 

 Having kept nearly all the English breeds of the fowl alive, 

 having bred and crossed them, and examined their skele- 

 tons, it appears to me almost certain that all are the 

 descendents of the wild Indian fowl, Gallus bankiva; and 

 this is the conclusion of Mr. Blyth, and of others who have 

 studied this bird in India. In regard to ducks and rabbits, 

 some breeds of which differ much from each otlier, tlie 

 evidence is clear that they are all descended from the 

 common duck and wild rabbit. 



The doctrine of the origin of our several domestic races 

 from several aboriginal stocks, has been carried to an 

 absurd extreme by some authors. They believe that every 

 race which breeds true, let the distinctive characters be 

 ever so slight, has had its wild prototype. At this rate 

 there must have existed at least a score of species of Avild 

 cattle, as many sheep, and several goats, in Europe alone, 

 and several even within Great Britain. One author believes 

 that there formerly existed eleven wild species of sheep 

 peculiar to Great Britain! When we bear in mind that 

 Britain has now not one peculiar mammal, and France but 

 few distinct from those of Germany, and so with Hungary, 

 Spain, etc., but that each of these kingdoms possesses sev- 

 eral peculiar breeds of cattle, sheep, etc., Ave must admit 

 that many domestic breeds must have originated in Europe; 

 for whence otherwise could they have been derived? So 

 it is in India. Even in the case of the breeds of the 

 domestic dog throughout the world, which I admit are 

 descended from several wild species, it cannot be doubted 

 that there has been an immense amount of inherited 

 variation; for who will believe that animals closely 

 resembling the Italian greyhound, the bloodhound, the 

 bull-dog, pug-dog, or Blenheim S23aniel, etc. — so unlike 

 all wild Canidae — ever existed in a state of nature? It 

 has often been loosely said that all our races of dogs have 

 been produced by the crossing of a few aboriginal species; 

 but by crossing we can only get forms in some degree inter- 

 mediate between their parents; and if we account for our 

 several domestic races by this i)rocess, we must admit the 

 former existence of the most extreme forms, as the Italian 

 greyhound, bloodhound, bull-dog, etc., in the wild state. 



