EVOLUTION OF MODERN FOWL 13 



of jungle fowl had been set up, there would have been no 

 such improvement in the breeds as we have to-day. The im- 

 provement did not come from breeding to a standard of uni- 

 formity. The improvement came about rather by variation. 



There can be no improvement without variation. In other 

 words, if like always followed like, improvement would be 

 impossible. "Like begets like" is not literally true, a fact 

 for which some of us humans may have regrets ; but on the 

 whole the human race has improved in many particulars 

 since the days of our barbarous ancestors, largely because of 

 this great law of heredity, the tendency to vary. The excep- 

 tional individual appears in the flock an exceptional bird 

 from average birds and this is called variation. A large 

 bird from small parents may breed a strain or variety of 

 large fowls. A small bird from large parents may breed 

 a variety of small birds. All plants and animals vary, and 

 it is in taking advantage of this factor that our fowls in two 

 or three thousand years have been bred up to a higher util- 

 ity ; or rather, it is one of the most potent factors. Fowls 

 may be induced to vary in different ways. Changes in 

 climatic conditions ; changes in food and care, and crossing 

 of different breeds, all have an influence toward greater 

 variation. Pedigree or ancestry is a valuable asset, but some- 

 times the law of variation breaks into the preserve and 

 takes captive this asset and gives us something more valu- 

 able. The old law of breeding was that pedigree was every- 

 thing, and if a phenomenal individual should appear, he 

 would quickly disappear, his offspring would be reduced to 

 the general average. The new Mendelian view is that the 

 phenomenal individual may breed pure ; that he may defy 

 his pedigree and ancestry and breed a superior race. 



Selection. Variation is effective through selection. 

 Variation is responsible for the exceptional individual; 

 selection is responsible for preserving it. Darwin says there 



