PART II. 



THE BEEEDS. 



**Wliat is a breed! '^ Many different replies 

 are made to this question. We talk glibly about 

 this breed and that breed; of breed character 

 and breed type, but when it comes to putting an 

 accepted but not conceived definition into cold 

 type it is altogether a different matter. Darwin 

 and other distinguished men of science have 

 told us from time to time what a breed is as op- 

 posed to a species or variety or sub-variety, but 

 I question very much if any definition yet given 

 quite fills the bill. Webster gives among others 

 these definitions of the word: *^A race or 

 progeny from the same parents or stock; as, a 

 new breed of sheep." ^'A cast, a race or kind 

 of men or other animals which have an alliance 

 by nativity or some distinctive qualities in com- 

 mon,'' and the phrase used as illustration is 

 * ^ Greyhounds of the best breed. ' ' The first may 

 be let go for what it is worth. The second falls 

 far short in that the animals in a breed need 

 not necessarily have a common parent or even 

 a common line of descent and the mere posses- 

 sion of * * some distinctive qualities in common ' ' 

 will not by any means make a breed. 



So far as our modern breeds are concerned 

 they are all composite in origin and there der- 



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