VNCONSGIOUS SELECTION. 33 



remarked by some authors, have more of the character of 

 tnie species than the varieties kept in civilized countries..^-- 

 /On the view here given of the important part whicli 

 selection by man has played, it becomes at once obvious, 

 how it is that our domestic races show adaptation in their 

 structure or in their habits to man's wants or fancies. We 

 can, I think, further understand the frequently abnormal 

 character of our domestic races, and likewise their differ- 

 ences being so great in external characters, and relatively 

 so slight in internal parts or organs. Man can hardly 

 select, or only with much difficulty, any deviation of 

 structure excepting such as is externally visible; and 

 indeed he rarely cares for what is internal. He can never 

 act by selection, excepting on variations which are first 

 given to him in some slight degree by nature. No man 

 would ever try to make a fantail till he saw a pigeon with 

 a tail developed in some slight degree in an unusual 

 manner, or a pouter till he saw a pigeon with a crop of 

 somewhat unusual size; and the more abnormal or unusual 

 any character was when it first appeared, the more likely 

 it would be to catch his attention. But to use such an ex- 

 pression as trying to make a fantail is, I have no doubt, in 

 most cases, utterly incorrect. The man who first selected 

 a pigeon with a slightly larger tail, never dreamed what the 

 descendants of that pigeon would become through long- 

 continued, partly unconscious and partly methodical, selec- 

 tion. Perhaps the parent-bird of all fantails had only 

 fourteen tail-feathers somewhat expanded, like the present 

 Java fantail, or like individuals of other and distinct 

 breeds, in which as many as seventeen tail-feathers have 

 been counted. Perhaps the first pouter-pigeon did not in- 

 flate its crop much more than the turbit now does 

 the upper part of its esophagus — a habit which is disre- 

 garded by all fanciers, as it is not one of the points of the^ 

 breed. 



/Nor let it be thought that some great deviation of struc- 

 ture would be necessary to catch the fancier's eye: he per- 

 ceives extremely small differences, and it is in human 

 nature to value any novelty, however slight, in 

 one's own possession. Nor must the value which would 

 formerly have been set on any slight differences in the 

 individuals of the same species, be judged of by the value 



