20 SELECTION BY MAN [CH*P. I. 



I have discussed the probable origin of domestic pigeons at some, 

 yet quite insufficient, length ; because when I first kept pigeons 

 and watched the several kinds, well knowing how truly they breed, 

 I felt fully as much difficulty in believing that since they had been 

 domesticated they had all proceeded from a common parent, as 

 any naturalist could in coming to a similar conclusion in regard 

 to the many species of finches, or other groups of birds, in nature. 

 One circumstance has struck me much ; namely, that nearly all 

 the breeders of the various domestic animals and the cultivators 

 of plants, with whom I have conversed, or whose treatises I have 

 read, are firmly convinced that the several breeds to which each 

 has attended, are descended from so many aboriginally distinct 

 species. Ask, as I have asked, a celebrated raiser of Hereford 

 cattle, whether his cattle might not have descended from Long- 

 horns, or both from a common parent-stock, and he will laugh you 

 to scorn. I have never met a pigeon, or poultry, or duck, or rabbit 

 fancier, who was not fully convinced that each main breed was 

 descended from a distinct species. Van Mons, in his treatise on 

 pears and apples, shows how utterly he disbelieves that the several 

 sorts, for instance a Bibston-pippin or Codlin-apple, could ever 

 have proceeded from the seeds of the same tree. Innumerable 

 other examples could be given. The explanation, I think, is 

 simple : from long-continued study they are strongly impressed 

 with the differences between the several races ; and though they 

 well know that each race varies slightly, for they win their prizes 

 by selecting such slight differences, yet they ignore all general 

 arguments, and refuse to sum up in their minds slight differences 

 accumulated during many successive generations. May not those 

 naturalists who, knowing far less of the laws of inheritance than 

 does the breeder, and knowing no more than he does of the inter- 

 mediate links in the long lines of descent, yet admit that many of 

 our domestic races are descended from the same parents may 

 they not learn a lesson of caution, when they deride the idea of 

 species in a state of nature being lineal descendants of other species 1 



Principles of Selection anciently followed,, and their Effects. 



Let us now briefly consider the steps by which domestic races 

 have been produced, either from one or from several allied species. 

 Some effect may be attributed to the direct and definite action of 

 the external conditions of life, and some to habit ; but he would be 

 a bold man who would account by such agencies for the differences 

 between a dray- and race-horse, a greyhound and bloodhound, a 

 carrier and tumbler pigeon. One of the most remarkable features 

 in our domesticated races is that we see in them adaptation, not 

 indeed to the animal's or plant's own good, but to man's use or \ 

 fancy. Some variations useful to him have probably arisen sud- 



